Demigod and Werewolves unite 2
by CharactersSecretsExposed
Summary: Sequel to 'Demigod and Werewolves unite'. Percy returns to Beacon Hills and is sucked back into the non-greek supernatural world as he joins forces with the local pack against an invading Alpha Pack and Dark Druid. But can one mismatched pack handle two evil forces? Percy might need the help of his own world if he is to survive his second year at Beacon Hills.
1. Deer, Dog, Crow

I yawned and continued my plodding down the hallways of Beacon Hills High School. That was the problem with holidays, I always stayed up late and slept in so when school and its early hours came round again I'd spend the first few days severely sleep deprived until I got used to waking up early.

'Aqua man returns for another year at school weird! Hey, do you know how many vehicle collisions last year involved deer? Two hundred and forty seven _thousand_.'

Stiles appeared seemingly out of nowhere, buzzing with energy as if _he_ were the one with ADHD. I groaned and rubbed the sleep from my eyes.

'I _really_ don't need fun facts this early in the morning,' I said blearily, 'since when did you become so interested in deer, anyway?'

'Since one ran into Lydia's car last night.'

I raised my eyebrow and gave Stiles an exasperated look.

'Stiles, _too_ _early_.'

He reacted with complete innocence.

'What? I'm serious – it full on head butted the winshield!' he insisted.

'And you know this _how_?

'I was there with Scott. We happened to be in the car behind them when I was driving Scott back from the tattoo parlor.'

'Scott got a tattoo?'

'Well, actually… he _had_ a tattoo.'

'Huh?'

Stiles opened his mouth to reply but caught sight of his friend.

'Wassup Scott?'

Scott nodded a greeting to both of us and kept up with our pace.

'Hey Stiles. Nice to see you Percy, didn't know you'd be coming back.'

'Summer Camp finished,' I shrugged, 'and this school is pretty interesting.'

Stiles snorted.

'Understatement,' he muttered.

I rolled my eyes.

'Trust me, when you live in my world, it's not,' I told him before turning to Scott, 'so what's this business about a tattoo?'

Scott gave the vicinity a quick sweep for eavesdroppers before answering.

'One of the things about being a werewolf is that I heal really quickly. So when I got a tattoo, it kinda... faded away,' he explained.

'Right…' I nodded slowly not quite getting the gist of his statement.

'But I think I know how I can get one without it healing,' he piped up.

Stiles groaned.

'Your _kidding_ – I hated that thing,' he muttered.

Scott shot his friend a condescending glare. Stiles noticed and dropped his exasperated expression.

'Sorry.'

Scott rolled his eyes and picked up where he had left off.

'I'm going to ask Derek to help me,' he explained.

Stiles snapped his head around to this friend.

'You want to ask Derek for help? Why? _Why_?'

'He's got the Triskelion tattoo on his back so there has to be a way to get one without healing, right?'

'Yeah but still, doesn't he have his hands a little full?' Stiles asked.

He motioned towards two '**MISSING – have you seen this person?'** posters pinned to the school bulletin board. 2D paper Erica and Boyd stared back from their pictures printed on the posters.

'I thought they switched packs?' I asked, 'why're they listed as missing?'

'Technically, they _did_,' Stiles said reasonably, 'but not on their free will.'

Scott noticed my blank expression and took over Stiles explanation.

'They were tricked into thinking that there was another pack – long story,' he added when I opened my mouth for another question, 'basically, they've been kidnapped by an Alpha pack – do you remember what Deaton said last year about checking out Derek's front door?'

'Yeah,' I nodded.

'Well, the Alpha pack symbol was painted on it. Derek's uncle Peter said that it was a warning because Derek was a new Alpha.'

'Derek has an Uncle?' I asked incredulously.

'Don't worry, he only came back from the dead a few months ago so you should be able to take him down with a metal baseball bat if he's not looking… not that I've tried,' Stiles added unhelpfully.

I widened my eyes in exasperation.

'Ok, whatever I don't want to know about Peter,' I said, 'so what's up with this Alpha Pack?'

'Well for starters, they're a pack made up entirely of Alphas,' Scott said.

'Yeah, imagine _us_ verses a whole _pack_ of Derek's,' Stiles added.

I frowned.

'But how does that work? If they're a pack of Alphas then… how do they have an Alpha?'

'There's suppose to be some sort of leader – Deucalion,' Scott explained, 'Derek, Peter and Isaac have been looking for them for the past four months.'

'Looking for Erica and Boyd,' I concluded.

Scott nodded.

'_Look, these are the application forms from the careers advisors – I need them sorted.'_

Stiles exchanged a questioning look to both of us and walked tentatively towards the voice emanating from the Principal's office. We poked our heads around the wall and were greeted with a view into the Principal's office. A middle-aged man dressed in a blue shirt and red tie that would look habitual on Clark Kent interrogated his assistant.

'_And whatever happened to the library while I was gone? I want it cleared up!'_

He glanced down as something caught his eye.

'_And what…. the hell… is this?'_ he exclaimed, lifting up Gerard's sword from where he had left it behind his former desk.

Stiles quickly turned his back to the office. Scott stared at the sword with a stunned expression.

'Go – _go_,' Stiles warned.

He ducked his head low and speed-walked away from the office. Scott trudged after Stiles in a daze and I grabbed his backpack, dragging him away from the open corridor before the new principal could spot him.

'C'mon, we gotta get to English,' I muttered, pulling him with me as we hurried after Stiles.

* * *

English.

One word: Dyslectic.

I sighed and drummed my fingers on the surface of my desk, staring at the back of Scott's head.

BZZZZ! Ding-Ding-Ding! BEEEP!

Around the class, students were reacting with surprise as their phones went of in a symphony of synthetic tones and pings. Unlike them, I didn't carry a cellphone since it acted like a hotspot for monsters so I leaned over my desk and craned my neck to catch a glimpse of the screen on Scott's phone.

I don't know why I even bothered; his phone was calibrated to English like every other mortal in the class. I slumped back into my seat with a huff.

'The offing was barred by a black bank of cloud and the tranquil waterway leading to the uttermost ends of the earth flowed somber under an overcast sky seemed to lead into he heart of an immense darkness. This, is the last line to the first book we are going to read.'

I cocked my head curiously as a young female dressed like a teacher clip-clopped into the room. Guessing by the other students alternating glances between her face and their phones, it seemed that the passage she had just recited was the cryptic text message.

'It is also,' the teacher raised her personal mobile, 'the last text you will receive in this class. Phones off, everyone.'

The students complied and she walked to stand behind the teacher's desk.

'Thank you; my name is Ms. Blake, please open your books to page nine.'

Ten minutes later we were reading passages from our textbooks while Ms. Blake dragged chalk across the blackboard.

Heart of Darkness

By

Joseph Conrad

Chapters 1-3

Due Friday

I sighed, there was no way I was reading three chapter of _anything_ with my greek wired brain. Truthfully, I was surprised I'd even managed to read the homework Mr. Blake had chalked up. Nevertheless, as much as I sucked at English I couldn't just sit here looking like an idiot or I'd get reprimanded for 'not doing my work', so I opened up my notebook and started scribbling a note in Ancient Greek to Annabeth. At the sound of an opening door, I looked up from my book in time to see the new principal entered the room. He spoke briefly with Ms. Blake before walking out.

'Mr. McCall?' Ms. Blake called out.

Scott looked up from his desk and she beckoned him forward with her index finger. He packed up his books and followed her outside. Moments later, Ms. Blake returned to the classroom minus one teen wolf. I shot a questioning look at Stiles but he merely shrugged.

It was a shame neither of us had superhuman hearing.

* * *

THUD!

Everyone in the classroom turned simultaneously towards the large windows that covered the side of the room. A black crow slid down from a splatter of blood on the window, presumably where it had impacted the glass and caused the noise.

I narrowed my eyes as I noticed a fuzzy black haze approaching the window outside. As it neared, its features sharpened and I realized that it was an entire flock of birds. Cawing and screeching as they caused a shadow to creep up the window.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

I jerked backwards in my seat away from the window as the first of the crows flew head first into the window.

BANG! BANG! CRASH!

Glass exploded as the second wave of crows smashed through the cracks caused by their predecessors. Everyone yelled and screamed as black birds swarmed the classroom. I didn't know how many there were but I'm pretty sure any more than twelve crows were bad luck.

'Get down! Everyone!' ordered Ms. Blake as the crows nose-dived, 'GET DOWN! GET DOWN!' she screamed when they only increased in number.

'Percy!'

I squinted through the cloud of feathers and spotted Stiles crouched protectively over Lydia, motioning me over. The crows were getting bolder now, flying lower with their claws so I dropped to the floor and scrambled my way over to them.

'Any chance this is one of your demigod things?' Stiles yelled hopefully.

In any other situation, I'd have berated him for literally yelling who I was to unknowing mortals but with the combined noise of screaming and cawing I don't think he really had a choice.

'No,' I hollered back, 'I thought this was one of _your_ supernatural things!'

Stiles looked stumped for a second, thinking over my statement as if there weren't a hurricane of crows buffing against us.

'Technically, I'm not a wer-'

'You know what I mean!' I yelled irrationally.

* * *

The classroom appeared devoid of life. A layer of black feathers coated the entire room as if it snowed the stuff. Then, a head popped up from the sea of overturned chairs and tables.

Stiles Stilinski grasped the table edge, using it as leverage to pull himself up from the floor. He stared opened mouth at the classroom's recent makeover and his classmates soon joined him on the surface.

'First the deer and now _this_,' Lydia muttered.

I frowned and turned to her curiously.

'The deer that hit your car went in head first, right?' I asked her.

'How did you know that?'

'Oh, I told him about half an hour ago,' Stiles interjected.

Lydia sighed and nodded.

'Headfirst,' she confirmed.

Then she froze and turned to Stiles and I.

'What's that thing you say about three's?' she asked.

'Uh… Zeus, Poseidon, Hades?' I offered, 'sorry, that's all I got.'

Lydia slowly shook her head.

'No, not that…' she trailed off, 'once… twice…'

'The deer, Prada and now the birds,' Stiles said, his tone of voice suggesting that he was following along with everything Lydia had said.

Unfortunately, I didn't.

'Ok, look. I get the deer was weird and the birds were… weirder, but what does a handbag brand have to do with any of this?'

'Prada's my _dog_,' Lydia said as if it was obvious.

'You named your dog after a handbag,' I said slowly, wondering if I had heard her correctly.

'You've got a hellhound called Mrs. O'Leary,' Stiles reminded me, 'Prada's a Chihuahua.'

I raised my eyebrow.

'You still remember Mrs. O'Leary? You only met her once last year.'

'Considering that her eyes glow red… yeah, it's a bit hard to forget,' Stiles decided.

'Boys!' Lydia exclaimed.

'Right; Deer, dog, crow,' Stiles stated.

We stood in silence for a moment, the only sound were gossiping and crying.

'I have no idea,' Stiles flung his hands in the air, 'I'm calling Scott.'

He pulled out his phone and dialed the beta.

'I'm going to talk to Allison,' Lydia announced and left us.

Stiles nodded goodbye but she had already left. He checked his phone screen once more before sticking it to the side of his face.

'Hey Scott, we got a serious problem at school. Ms. Blake's class-'

Stiles stopped mid sentence, his phone glued to his ear.

'Ah, well, nope pretty sure this qualifies for immediate discussion.'

He paused.

'Derek's house? What? What the hell are you-'

I jerked my head towards him and waved my arms in front of his face to get his attention. He turned to me, still listening to Scott on his phone and I motioned questionably with my hands. _Why?_ Stiles shrugged and mouthed _I don't know. _He listened for a few more seconds before ending the call.

'Scott wants us to meet him at Derek's house,' he said, 'and no he didn't tell me why.'

I sighed.

'What do we have to loose?' I muttered.

'Our throats,' Stiles suggested helpfully.

'That was a rhetorical question.'

'Well, that was a… rhetorical answer?'


	2. Ephemeral

Derek's house reminded me of one of those shacks you saw in a horror movie – literally. It may have been a mansion in its youthful years but now it was a dilapidated skeleton made of blackened wood and strangled by nature. According to Stiles the, perpetrator had been a fire.

Inside, we found Scott waiting whilst Derek checking over Isaac. The Alpha Pack had injured him and he was comatose until he healed – apparently wounds inflicted by an Alpha healed much slower. The Alpha pack had made the first move.

Derek heard our arrival and waved everyone into what was appeared to be the dullest living room I'd ever set eyes upon, held together by loose floorboards and shuttered windows. The only light source came from the numerous cracks between the walls.

'The pain's going to be worse than anything you've ever felt,' Derek said bluntly, pushing Scott into one of the few pieces of furniture in the room.

'Ow, that's great,' Stiles said sarcastically stopping beside me.

Scott nodded, 'do it.'

Derek reached behind him and picked up a blazer torch. In his other hand he held a fire starter over the torch and activated it. Scott's eyes widened minutely as he stared at the now fiery blazer torch in Derek's hand.

'Oh, wow. That's a lot for me so… I'm going to take that as my cue and I'll meet you guys outside' Stiles announced.

He thumped me on the back and walked towards the front door. As he passed Derek, the Alpha's hand shot out and stopped his retreat.

'Nope, you're going to help hold him down,' he said matter-of-factly and pushed Stiles towards his friend, 'you too,' Derek pointed at me.

I sighed.

'So this is why you called us here,' I muttered and dutifully held Scott's shoulder to the chair.

Once we had restrained him, Derek moved the torch closer to Scott's arm. Beside me, Stiles muttered expletives under his breath. Derek pushed the flame against Scott's arm and he screamed. His eyes turned yellow and a roar echoed throughout the room.

* * *

'Well, it looks pretty damn permanent now,' Stiles commented, eyeing Scott's tattoo.

Scott admired the two black bands on his upper arm once more before pulling down his sleeve and covering the marks.

'I kinda needed something permanent after everything that's happened to us. Everything just changes so fast, everything's so… ephemeral.'

Stiles scrunched up his mouth and nodded, contemplating what Scott had just said

'Studying for the PSAT's?' he finally guessed.

Scott nodded.

'Nice,' Stiles said indifferently, 'hey, now you two can be tattoo budies.'

He motioned towards Scott and I and then his hands froze as another thought came to his mind.

'Oh wait, I meant you three,' he amended purposefully projecting his voice into the house where Derek was with Isaac.

'Nah, just them two,' I said, 'mine's more of a brand.'

Stiles quirked up his eyebrow.

'Lydia's dog really _is_ called Prada and _yes_ she named her dog after a handbag.'

I rolled my eyes.

'Not that kind of brand,' I said, 'seriously, I've already gotten over dogs named after handbags'.

'Not everyone can be like Mr. Dictionary over here,' Stiles jerked his thumb at Scott, 'aren't brands like… against human rights or something?'

'I didn't hurt that much,' I shrugged, 'it's a Roman demigod thing.'

Stiles stared at me.

'Ok now you're telling me that there's _two_ different types of demigod?' he complained.

I grinned. Then I checked my watch.

'Hey, look guys I gotta go or mum will flip,' I said.

Scott nodded.

'Yeah, that's fine. We'll see you at school tomorrow.'

* * *

'Hello boys.'

Lydia strutted over to the table, closely followed by Allison. They slid into the empty seats, dropping their trays onto the table.

'Hey,' Scott looked surprised and his eyes locked on Allison.

Right, down to business,' Lydia announced, 'some girl approached us at our lockers and asked for you, Scott.'

'Why? What did she want?'

'I don't know, but she was sweaty,' Lydia inspected the 'food' on her tray and wrinkled her nose.

'She looked sick,' Allison corrected, 'and she grabbed our arms before she ran. It left _this_.'

Allison rolled up her sleeve and exposed the skin under her forearm. There were lines of red and purple bruising.

'Did she hurt you?' Scott asked.

'It's a bruise,' Stiles stated.

Allison sighed in exasperation.

'Lydia, show them your arm,' she told her friend.

Lydia complied, tugging up the sleeve of her dress. All three of use leaned in closer to get a better look. Her bruise was identical to Allison's.

'Ok… that's weird,' Stiles stated.

'Is that a symbol?' I asked.

Allison shrugged.

'Maybe, I've been looking online for runes but I can't find one that matches… does this look like Greek or Roman to you?'

'Sorry, I've never seen that before. Have you asked Derek yet? He's suppose to know stuff… being the Alpha and all, right?'

'He and I don't exactly see eye to eye,' Allison said stiffly.

I sensed danger and refrained from prying.

'I can ask him for you,' Scott offered, 'it's worth a shot.'

Lydia sighed and retracted her arm.

'Fine, set up a meeting,' she said.

Scott nodded.

'Don't worry. Derek will see something.'

* * *

'I don't see anything.'

Stiles groaned and let his head fall back so that he was staring at the ceiling. Upon Scott's instructions, we had congregated in the history classroom. He and I were using the tops of the desks as seats and chairs as foot rests. A meter away, Allison and Lydia were standing beside each other, their arms proffered and close together so that they displayed the entire picture made by their bruises. Scott stood with Derek who stared blankly at the girl's arms.

'Look again,' Scott insisted.

'How is a _bruise_ suppose to tell me where Boyd and Erica are?' Derek asked, unimpressed.

'It's the _same_, on both sides – exactly the same,' Scott told him as if it were obvious.

'It's nothing,' Derek replied, unmoved.

'Pareidolia,' Lydia said, 'seeing patterns that aren't there.'

Scott looked mildly surprised before giving Derek a sympathetic look, however the Alpha's stoic expression remained.

'It's a subset of Apothecia,' Lydia explained when she only received dumbfounded silence.

'They're trying to help,' Scott told Derek.

Finally, Derek's mask broke and his face morphed into mock surprise.

'These two?' he asked, motioning to the two girls, 'this one,' he pointed to Lydia, 'who used me to resurrect my psychotic uncle – thank you. And this one,' he pointed to Allison, 'who shot about thirty arrows into me and my pack.'

'Ok, alright now, C'mon,' Stiles interrupted in a reasoning tone, scooting off the table to approach the Alpha 'no one _died_, alright? Look, there may have been a little maiming, Ok? A little mangling but no death – that's what I call an important distinction.'

'A girl's looking for Scott. I'm here to help him, not you,' Allison told Derek.

'Want to help? Find something real,' Derek snapped before walking out of the room.

'Well that was a waste of time,' I sighed and slid off the table to make my exit.

'I knew it would be,' Lydia grumbled, just as the school bell rang to announce the conclusion of school.

I'd only made it halfway to the front entrance before I heard my name being hollered across the hallway.

'Percy!'

I twisted my head around and spotted Stiles walking towards me.

'Deaton's office, one hour,' he said as he caught up.

'What're we going to do there?' I asked as we walked with the flow of students heading towards the main entrance.

'Get back Isaac's memories… hopefully.'

That 'hopefully' part didn't sound so good.

'Does Derek think Isaac knows where Boyd and Erica are being held?

Stiles nodded.

'Yeah, apparently an Alpha stole his memory – they can do that.'

I raised an eyebrow. I'd have to steer clear of Derek.

'Ok… see you in an hour'.

* * *

I got to the Veterinary in an hour and ten minutes. Werewolf hearing and smell alerted the pack to my presence.

'Hey Perce, we're in here!'

Scott's voice echoed from inside the building so I pushed past the gate in the waiting area and walked into one of the back rooms. Inside was a single metal bathtub filled with water and what looked like a dozen bags of ice strewn on the floor, although Derek and Scott were still hauling more in so it was hard to tell.

'_This_ is how you're going to get Isaac's memory?' I asked incredulously.

Scott looked at the miniature reincarnation of Antarctica and shrugged.

'Yeah, I guess it looks kinda drastic, huh?' he mused.

'I think I've got an idea of what you're going to do,' I muttered.

Scott grinned and motioned towards the tub.

'Your free to do the honors,' he offered

I rolled my eyes but concentrated. I could sense each and every ice cube and all the atoms and molecules that they were comprised of. Lifting my hands, I felt a familiar tug in my gut as all the ice leapt from their bags and flowed smoothly into the tub.

'Nice to see you again, Percy Jackson.'

I dropped my hands and turned around. Dr. Deaton walked into the room followed by Stiles and Isaac. I nodded a greeting to them.

'Nice to be back,' I replied, 'so what's the plan?'

'Honestly, I don't really know the details. Just that they're going to give me a bath,' Isaac told me.

Deaton turned sympathetically to the beta.

'Obviously it's not going to be particularly… comfortable. But if we can slow your heart rate down enough you'll slip into a trancelike state.'

'Like, being hypnotized?' Isaac asked him.

'Exactly,' Deaton agreed, 'you'll be half-transformed. It'll let us access your subconscious mind.'

We walked over to the bathtub and Isaac crouched down next to it, eyeing the ice-polluted water with distaste.

'How slow does his heart rate have to be?' I inquired.

'Very slow,' Deaton replied.

'Yeah, well how slow is very slow?' Derek asked.

Deaton inclined his head thoughtfully.

'Nearly dead,' he admitted.

Isaac slowly brought his palm down over the water. As it made contact he drew his hand back, hissing from the sheer temperature.

'It's safe though, right?' Isaac sounded as if he were convincing himself rather than asking the question.

'Do you want me to answer honestly?' Deaton asked.

'No, not really' Isaac muttered.

SNAP!

Everyone turned towards the sound of stretched and snapping plastic. Stiles stood off to the side, proudly examining his gloved hand. He wiggled his latex fingers and smiled before catching sight of the rest of us in his peripheral vision. He turned and caught us staring, the smiles was replaced by an innocent expression.

'What?'

Derek raised his eyebrows in a questioning expression and Stiles begrudgingly dropped his arm, pulling off the latex glove.

Isaac took a deep breath and switched his gaze back to the bathtub.

'Look, if it feels to risky you don't have to do this,' Derek told Isaac.

Scott nodded in agreement. Isaac looked both of them in the eye and then made his decision. He pulled off his shirt and took a hold of the rim of the tub. Taking another deep breath he quickly swung his legs over the edge and into the iced water. Then, before he could change his mind, he sat down in the tub, suffocating the edges with his fist. His breath came in quick, sharp bursts and he started to tremble as his body temperature plummeted.

Deaton nodded to each of us and we took position around the tub. At his cue, I grabbed a limb and pushed his body down under the water along with everybody else. For a few seconds, nothing happened.

And then he surfaced.

Isaac roared, fangs protruding from his mouth and eyes bright yellow.

'Get him back under,' Deaton instructed and we forced him underwater once more.

'Hold him,' Deaton ordered as we struggled to keep the squirming beta in our grasps.

'We're _trying_,' Derek shot back.

And then Isaac stopped struggling.


	3. Minutes

All five of us exchanged worried glances but relaxed when we saw that Deaton was still calm. If Deaton wasn't reacting negatively, then that meant that all was going to plan… at least I hoped so. Slowly, we released our grip on Isaac and stepped back from the tub. With nothing holding his body down, Isaac rose to the surface like a buoy.

As his face broke the surface he drew in a breath and Deaton held up a finger, warning us to remain silent.

'Now remember,' he whispered, 'only_ I_ talk to him. Too many voices will confuse him – draw him out.

He looked at each of us and we all nodded out understanding. Only then, did Deaton lean over the tub, near Isaac's face.

'Isaac?' he called, 'can you hear me?'

'Yes,' the beta choked out, his voice unsteady from the cold, 'I can hear you.'

'This is Doctor Deaton,' Deaton continued, 'I'd like to ask you a few questions – is that alright?'

'Yes.'

'I want to ask you about the night you found Erica and Boyd. I want you to remember it for me in as vivid detail as possible. Like you're actually there with them.'

'I-I don't want to do that. I don't want to do that.'

Isaac stirred in the tub and the lights flickered.

'I don't want to do that.'

His voice became more agitated and we each grabbed a limb once more to steady him.

'Relax, just relax,' Deaton said soothingly, 'just memories, you can't be hurt by a memory.'

'I don't want to do that, I-I don't want to do that.'

'It's alright, just relax.'

Isaac's movements became more sluggish.

'Relax,' Deaton murmured.

Isaac stilled.

'Good… Now lets go back to that night. To the place you found Erica and Boyd. Can you tell me what you see? Is there some kind of building? A house?'

No, it's not a house. It's a… stone. I think marble.'

'That's perfect. Can you give me any other descriptors?'

'It's dusty, so… empty.'

'Like an abandoned building?'

Silence.

'Isaac?'

Isaac began moving in the ice once more. His hand shot out and he grabbed Scott's arm. Scott started slightly but didn't pull away.

'Someone's here,' Isaac panicked, 'someone's here.'

'Isaac,' Deaton's voice took on a disciplinary tone, 'Isaac, relax.'

'No, no, no, save me! _Save me_!'

He twisted and yelled against an unseen force, we hastily grabbed his limbs again and tried to hold him still.

'They're just memories, can't be hurt by them. Just relax,' Deaton droned soothingly, 'relax.'

Isaac's agitated movements ceased and his grip on Scott's hand loosened.

'Good. Now tell us what you see – tell us everything.'

Isaac was silent for a moment, lost in his memories. His eyes moved under their lids and eventually, opened.

'I hear him,' he said, staring at the ceiling, 'he's talking about the full moon, about being out of control when the moon rises.'

'Is he talking to Erica?'

'I think so, I can't–I can't see her–I can't see either of them.'

'Can you hear anything else?'

'They're worried–They're worried what they'll do during new moon. They're worried that they're going to hurt each other.'

'If they're locked in together on the full moon they're going to tear each other apart,' Derek muttered.

Deaton glanced at the Alpha, considering his words before turning back to Isaac.

'Isaac? We need to find them _right_ _now_. Can you see them?'

'No.'

'Do you know what kind of room it is?'

Isaac stared at the light bulb hanging directly above him.

'Is there any kind of a marker? A number on a door? A sign?' Deaton urged.

Isaac sat bolt upright. He gasped for air, his eyes unseeing.

'They're here,' he whispered, 'they're here, they're here.'

'It's alright-'

'No! They're here.'

'Just tell us-'

'They've found me, _they're here_!'

'This isn't working,' Derek snapped at Deaton, 'Isaac where are you?'

'No I can't stay it's too dark!'

'Isaac tell me where you are?' Deaton asked.

'I can't see!'

'I said where are you?' Derek ordered, 'tell me where you are!'

'There's a dead body! It's Erica!'

Derek's eyes widened and he tightened his grip on Isaac.

'Derek stop, he could go into shock!' Deaton warned.

'Derek, let him go!' Scott demanded.

'Isaac where are you? What did you see?' Derek screamed in his face.

'It's a vault! It's a bank vault!' Isaac blurted out.

He snapped out of the trance and scrambled up in the water.

'I saw it,' he said, his voice stronger than when he had been in the trance, 'I saw the name.'

He struggled to pull himself out of the water and Scott hauled on his arm to help him up. Deaton grabbed a towel and threw it over Isaac's shoulders, I willed the icy water from him but he still shook from the after-affects.

'It's uh, Beacon Hills First National Bank. Its um, an abandoned bank and-and they're keeping them locked inside, inside the vault,' Isaac said.

Everyone was silent, they all looked at Isaac.

'What?' he asked.

'You don't remember what you said, right before you came out of it?' Stiles asked quietly.

Isaac stared at him and shook his head.

'No.'

'You said that when they captured you they dragged you into a room and that there was a body in it,' Stiles said slowly.

Isaac shook his head again, confused.

'What body?' he asked.

Stiles exchanged wary glances with us before switching his eyes back on Isaac.

'Erica,' Stiles finally told him, 'you said it was Erica.'

* * *

'She's not dead.'

'Derek, he said 'there's a dead body, its Erica' – doesn't exactly leave us much room for interpretation,' Stiles said.

'Then who was in the vault with Boyd?' Derek demanded.

'Someone else obviously,' Stiles answered.

'_Maybe_ it was the girl on the motorcycle,' Scott guessed, he turned to Isaac, 'she's the one that saved you.'

'Nah, she wasn't like us,' Isaac replied, 'and whoever was in the vault with Boyd _was_.'

I sat slouched on the surface of an animal operating table that had been pushed up against the wall. I could feel my eyelids dropping and the argument around me was starting to sound as if it were coming from a distance.

'What if that's like how Erica died? They pit them against each other during the full moon and see which one survives – it's like werewolf Thunderdog,' Stiles suggested.

'Then we get them out _tonight_,' Derek announced.

'Be smart about this Derek,' Deaton advised, 'you can't just go storming in.'

'If Isaac got in then so can we.'

'But he didn't get through a vault door – did he?'

'We need a plan,' Scott interrupted.

'How are we going to come up with a plan to break into a bank vault in less than twenty-four hours?' Derek asked cynically.

'Uh, I think someone already did,' Stiles said, his eyes glued to his mobile, 'Beacon Hills First National closes the store three months after vault robbery,' he read aloud, 'It doesn't say here how it was robbed but it won't take long to find out.'

'How long?'

'It's the internet, Derek,' Stiles scoffed.

Derek gave him a condescending stare and wiped the amused expression off Stiles' face.

'Okay, minutes,' Stiles told him.

Derek sighed.

'Fine. You, Scott and Percy find out how they did it.'

I woke from my half-slumber at the sound of my name.

'I'm dyslexic,' I announced blearily, 'the only newspaper article I'll be able to read is one in Ancient Greek.'

Derek lifted his eyes to the heavens in exasperation.

'Fine. Stiles and Scott – find out how they did it, _quickly_.'

Stiles snorted.

'Minutes,' he repeated.

* * *

Sheriff Stilinski opened the door to his son's room and found two teenage boys fast asleep. The lower half of Stiles' body was on his bed whilst the other half was leaning awkwardly over so that he was sleeping upside down with the side of his head glued to the floor, mouth slightly agape as he snored.

Scott was leaning backwards in a desk chair while the printer beside him worked diligently, another sheet already being produced and spat onto the floor atop its predecessors. Empty coffee cups and a blizzard of papers covered every surface of the bedroom within a meter radius of both boys.

Sheriff Stilinski sighed wearily; unfortunately, this wasn't the first unusual scene he had witnessed since the beginning of his son's adolescent life.

'Boys. Hey, time to wake up.'

Silence, save for soft snoring. The Sheriff sighed again and swapped his thermo flask to his other hand. He had a feeling he'd have to bring two of them to the station with him today.

'_Boys_,' he said more forcefully.

Silence.

'Boys!'

Stiles jerked awake, confusion and sleep distorting his face. Without his head to support his body, it automatically slid off the bed and onto the floor. Stiles scrambled to soften the fall and snapped his head up towards his father. The sheet of paper he had been using as a pseudo-pillow stuck to the side of his face and he hastily snatched it off.

On the other side of the small bedroom Scott leapt up as he woke, startled so that he almost tipped over the chair he had been sleeping it. He blinked his eyes sleepily and steadied his impromptu bed, gazing down at the papers surrounding him.

'I gotta get to work,' Stiles' father announced wearily.

Stiles pulled himself up to a crouch and Scott leaned back in the chair, rubbing his eyes.

'You two, get to school,' Sheriff Stilinski ordered, pointing his finger at the two boys.

He left the door open behind him as he left the room. Stiles looked down at the papers and irritably tore off the few that were still stuck to various parts of his body.

'Ten hours and nothing,' he said bitterly, standing up.

'We're going to find something,' Scott said reassuringly.

'Finding something doesn't make Erica any less dead,' Stiles told him as he walked around his bedroom, picking up the papers, 'or Boyd any less about to be dead.'

'Well, we still have time.'

Stiles turned to his friend, an exasperated expression on his face.

'Is this whole like, remain optimistic in the face of complete and utter disaster thing suppose to be a better Scott McCall program?'

'Nah, not if it doesn't work,' Scott admitted.

Stiles sighed.

'No, it works,' he said.

He glanced down at the stack of papers in his hands and something caught his eye. He dropped the papers he had just picked up but kept a single sheet in his hand, a stunned expression on his face.

'Oh… Dad! Dad? _Dad_!' he yelled.

He shoved the paper into his friend's hands and hightailing it out of the room after his father. Scott watched his friend go, confused and then looked down at the paper Stiles had just given him.

It was one of the news articles about the bank robbery and under the heading was a photograph of Sheriff Stilinski arresting one of the thieves.


	4. Risk and reward

'_This_ is where Derek lives?' I asked, staring critically at the building.

'I guess,' Scott shrugged, 'it's not like his family's house is exactly livable.'

We reached two metal doors and Scott went first, pushing through them into the room. Derek was already there, crouched over a steel table inspecting a map of the bank under the light of a desk lamp. An older man also sat on the bottom of a spiraling set of stairs.

'What's he doing here?' Stiles demanded, jabbing his index finger accusingly at the stranger.

The man cocked his head curiously, as if deciding what to do with this pesky teenager.

'I live here,' he replied reasonably.

Stiles snorted, 'I thought you said you lived in an apartment downtown'.

The stranger shrugged.

'I like to alternate,' he replied easily.

I frowned slightly.

'Wait,' I said slowly, pointing at the stranger, '_you're_ Derek's uncle?'

Peter rolled his eyes.

'And you must be the unusual Percy Jackson I've been hearing about,' he drawled.

I snorted.

'Says the guy who died and came back to life,' I muttered.

With his werewolf hearing, there was no way that Peter couldn't have heard what I said. Thankfully, he decided to ignore it and let Stiles brief us. The Alpha waved us over to the table and threw Stiles a red marker.

'Tell us what you found,' he ordered.

We crowded around the table, Stiles in the middle as he talked us through what his dad had recounted.

'Ok, see this?' he tapped the back of the marker onto a section of the map, 'this is how they got in – it's a rooftop air conditioning vent. It leads down inside into to the wall of the vault, which is here,' he circled the square on the map that represented the vent opening.

'One of the robbers was lowered down into this shaft,' he pointed with the marker, 'now, that space is so small it took them about twelve hours to drill into that wall – which is stone by the way. Then, throughout the rest of the night they siphoned the cash up to the guys back on the roof through that one little shaft on the wall – boom!' he wacked the inked box that represented the shaft with the back of the marker.

'Can we fit in there?' Scott asked.

'Yes we can but very, very barely,' Stiles confirmed, 'and they also patched the wall obviously so we're going to need a drill of some kind. I'm thinking maybe a diamond bit-.'

'-forget the drill,' Derek interrupted.

Stiles turned to him.

'Sorry?' he asked.

'If I go in first, how much space do I have?' Derek interrogated.

Stiles looked down at the map then turned back to Derek, his fingers drumming across the table.

'What are–what do you think you're going to do Derek? Are you going to punch through the wall?' Stiles asked sardonically.

Derek stood up straighter and folded his arms.

'Yes, Stiles I'm going to punch through the wall,' he answered, a synthetic smile plastered on his face.

'Ok, ok big guy let's see it – let's see that fist,' Stiles said mockingly, he motioned upwards to indicate that Derek do as he asked, 'big ol' fist. Make it, c'mon. Get it out there, don't be scared.'

I shifted uncomfortably, wondering whether Stiles knew he was approaching the danger zone. Derek raised his fist, his face set in a hardened expression of boredom.

'Big bad wolf? Yeaaah, look at that. Ok, see this?' Stiles grabbed Derek's fist and held it close to the palm of his other hand, 'that's maybe _three_ _inches_ of room to gather enough force to punch through solid–_argh_!'

Unimpressed, Derek shot his fist forward into Stiles palm with enough force to push the teenager off his feet. Stiles collapsed against the table, clutching his injured hand next to his chest, gasping from the pain.

'Ah-argh!' Stiles staggered away from the table, his voice rising in octave, 'he can do it!' he squeaked.

'I'll get through the wall,' Derek began conversationally us as if nothing had happened, 'who's following me down?'

Silence. Derek looked at his Uncle.

'Don't look at me,' Peter said innocently, 'I'm not up to fighting speed yet and honestly, with Isaac out of commission you're not looking at very good odds for yourself.'

'So I'm suppose to just let them die?' Derek accused.

'Well, one's already dead,' Peter reminded him helpfully.

'We don't know that,' Derek replied firmly.

'Do I have to remind you what we're up against here?' Peter asked, 'a _pack_ of Alphas.'

Stiles returned to stand by the table; he rubbed his hand and glared accusingly at Derek.

'All of them, killers,' Peter continued, 'and if that's not enough to scare your testicles back into your stomach then try to remember that two of them combine one body to form one _giant_ Alpha.'

'What?' I spluttered.

Scott shrugged miserably and Peter ignored my minor outburst.

'I'm sure Erica and Boyd are sweet kids and they're going to be missed,' he murmured innocently to the ceiling.

'Can someone kill him again, please?' Stiles asked to no one in particular.

Peter raised his eyebrow critically at the teenager and then switched his gaze back to his nephew.

'Derek? Seriously?' he said, 'not worth the risk.'

Then he leaned back on the step he was sitting on and folded his arms, his little speech finished. Derek glanced over at Scott.

'What about you?' he asked.

Stiles shrugged.

'Yeah, you want me to come-' he began.

'-not _you_,' Derek interrupted impatiently.

'Scott,' Stiles guessed, nodding and jabbed his thumb at the teenager standing behind him.

'I don't know about Erica,' Scott said quietly, 'but if Boyd's still alive we have to do something.

He glanced over at Peter who rolled his eyes.

'We have to try,' Scott insisted.

'You're odds of survival are practically _zero_,' Peter insisted, 'it's the two of you against _five_ Alphas.'

'I can come,' I offered.

Peter raised his eyebrow.

'What?' I protested, 'you need more man power right?'

'Supernatural, you mean,' Stiles corrected.

Derek was nodding slowly.

'Deucalion doesn't know about demigods yet. If you show him what you can do it'll be like sticking a giant target on your head,' Scott warned.

'Maybe,' I agreed, 'but I've dealt with worse people and you never know; one guy might be the difference between Derek and Scott getting out alive or dead.'

'Ok,' Derek decided, 'the three of us will break in – _tonight_, before the full moon.'

* * *

The alleyway echoed with the muffled sound of traffic far away. There were piles of trash lining the brick walls but surprisingly it didn't reek as much as I'd thought it would. Scott and I followed Derek down the alley until he stopped under a steel ladder. He craned his neck up, judging the height between the ground and its bottom rung before glancing at Scott in time to notice his doubtful expression.

'What?' Derek demanded.

'Its just that something I can't get out of my head,' Scott said vaguely.

'The moon's rising Scott, what is it? Derek asked irritably.

I shifted my weight to my other weight, partly from ADHD and partly because Derek's agitated state was making me nervous. Even though the Alpha was mortal he could get pretty damn scary when he got angry.

'Risk and reward,' Scott replied, turning his head towards Derek.

'Don't remind me – I hate economics, now,' I groaned, 'stupid risk landed me the pop quiz _and_ an essay.'

Derek ignored me like he did everyone else.

'Which means what?' he pestered Scott impatiently.

'We're not measuring the risk with enough information, we don't know enough,' Scott explained.

'We know time's running out.'

'Yeah but think about it – they put the triskelion door in _four_ months ago. What have they been doing all this time? Why wait till now?'

'We don't have the time to figure out every little detail.'

'What if _this_ detail, is the reason _why_ they waited? What if it's the most important one?' Scott insisted.

'He's right you know. Trust me, when you've gotten the risk the reward doesn't seem so enticing,' I added.

Derek looked back and forth at us in annoyance.

'Then we do nothing,' he finally said, 'and Boyd and Erica are dead. I know what I'm risking – my life, for theirs.'

And with that, he turned his back on us and set his sights on the ladder. Utilizing the top of a trash container as a springboard, he leapt into the air and grabbed a metal frame barring a window beside the ladder. Using the bar as leverage, he pushed himself off and onto the ladder. Safely perched, he twisted his head around to look at Scott and I on the ground below him.

'I won't blame you if you don't follow me,' he said.

I didn't know if he was talking to Scott, or me, or both of us but before I could ask Derek turned his head skywards once more and began climbing up the ladder.

Scott watched the Alpha until he was halfway up the ladder and the dropped his gaze back down. He met my questioning gaze and shrugged. I rolled my eyes.

'Great, it's times like this I wish I had superhuman strength,' I muttered.

Scott grinned.

'I could always throw you into the air?' he suggested

I snorted.

'Over my dead body,' I replied, 'don't worry, I'll find another way in.'

Scott nodded.

'Be careful,' he warned before leaping into the air in similar fashion to Derek's stunt.

* * *

'How convenient,' I mused as I regarded the front door to Beacon Hills First National Bank.

The rusted metal handles were constricted by black chains, which congregated into an old fashioned padlock. Overall, it was an effective method for keeping out trespassers – or at least it would've been if the chain links hadn't been forcibly broken.

If the Alpha pack really was using this abandoned bank to imprison Boyd and Erica it wouldn't be beyond them to enter through the front door. What was curious about the obvious break-in however was that the chains appeared to have been cut by a man made tool and not a set of werewolf claws. From what I knew from spending all that time with the Beacon Hill's pack, werewolves loved using their claws for _everything_ – so who had broken into the bank if not the Alpha pack?

I sighed. Beggars couldn't be choosers. It was either _this_ or seeing if it was possible to propel myself into the air with a jet of water and grab the ladder before I plummeted into a garbage container.


	5. Call Stiles first

ROAR!

ARGH!

I frowned and ran as quietly as I could towards the sound of violent werewolf fighting and human screams. Oddly, it sounded as if Scott and Derek were the ones who were screaming. I took out riptide as I skidded around a corner and spotted an open vault door from which the ruckus was originating. Recklessly, I pushed aside Coach's lecture of risk and sprinted for the vault door. If there were a trap, I'd be risking my life for possibly four other werewolves – not too bad odds if you ask me.

I reached the vault entrance and froze when I saw Derek, Scott, Boyd and a female werewolf whom was definitely _not_ Erica battling it out werewolf style.

'Look out!' I yelled as Boyd's claws swiped the air Scott had been only moments ago.

I gripped my sword tighter and readied myself for the bloody battle but before I stuck my foot through the circular door, a thick black line caught my eye and I recognized it instantly as mountain ash. I quickly swept my gaze around the inside of the vault and confirmed that the line ran along the walls in a continuous loop. I knelt and reached out with my hand to break the line of ash closest to me. Derek and Scott might not be able to touch mountain ash but in the supernatural world, I definitely counted as human.

'No, don't touch the seal!'

I instantly retracted my hand and glanced up. Derek had a desperate look in his eye and she struggled to control the girl he was battling. On the other side of the room, Scott was pinned against the wall. Boyd had sunk his claws deep into the teenager's abdomen and Scott was struggling to breathe as his blood spilled from the wound. If I didn't break the seal, Scott would bleed out but if I broke it, what would happen that Derek would rather give up his life than allow the seal to be broken?

I chewed my lip in frustration, frozen in my crouched position as I contemplated what to do. If I went into the arena, I'd probably be able to save Scott but not keep him that way for very long – with the border of mountain ash; he and Derek would still be trapped in the vault. Same thing if I used water to keep Boyd and the girl at bay – my powers would drain my strength and pretty soon we'd be back to square one minus one exhausted demigod.

'Scott!'

I twisted my body around and was instantly cast in a shadow as Allison ran towards the vault door, her body blocking the moonlight that had been spilling over me. Before I could stop her or say anything, she bent down beside me and reached out to break the seal.

'No, stop!' Derek ordered as he spotted her.

Allison ignored him.

'Boyd!' she yelled as she shoved her palms into the line of blackened ash.

The bulky teenager turned his head at his name in time to see Allison break the seal. Immediately he retracted his claws from Scott who dropped to the ground, groaning in pain while his wounds healed.

'Move!'

I grabbed Allison's arm and yanked her out of the way as Boyd and the girl barreled past us towards the nearest exit. I sighed in relief that they hadn't paused to attack us and released Allison's arm only to have it snatched by Derek.

'What were you thinking?' he demanded furiously.

'Don't touch her!' Scott growled and Derek loosed his grip long enough for Allison to reclaim her arm.

'I had to do _something_!' Allison protested angrily.

'She saved our lives,' Scott argued defensively.

'Yeah and what do you think they're gonna do out there?' Derek shot back, 'do you have _any_ idea what we just set free?

'You wanna blame me?' Allison asked scornfully, 'well I'm not the one turning teenagers into killers.'

'Wait, he what? I interrupted, 'what are you talking about?'

'Werewolves aren't all born – Erica and Boyd only became werewolves because Derek gave them the bite,' Allison accused.

I turned to Derek scandalized.

'Why the hell did you turn them into werewolves?' I asked.

'They _wanted_ it,' Derek said dismissively, 'anyway that's not the point. I'm going to go find Erica – stay here.'

He disappeared into the shadows in the depths of the abandoned bank.

'I-uh-try the janitors closet next to the entrance,' Allison called out half-heartedly after him.

I gave her an odd look; there was something she knew that she didn't want to tell Derek outright. Given the bad mood he was in I guessed it wasn't good news. I turned back to Scott.

'Do you know who was with Boyd in there?' I asked him.

'Derek's sister, Cora,' Scott answered, 'it's a surprise for all of us,' he added when he saw the questions Allison and I were about to ask him, 'Derek thought she was dead.'

I sighed. First an Uncle now a Sister – It seemed that everyone in Derek's family had a reputation for resurrecting.

'Ok, so why was Derek so mad at Allison? What're Boyd and Cora going to do?' I asked.

'According to Peter; Boyd and Cora aren't themselves since they'd been cut off from the moonlight for three months – basically they're killing machines,' Scott summed up.

At that moment, Derek trudged towards us, his face contorted in grief. In his arms his held Erica's limp body.

'She's dead,' he declared sorrowfully.

We all fell silent, unsure of how to comfort the Alpha.

'They're going to pay,' Derek growled.

'I'm sorry about Erica,' I murmured.

Having your friends get murdered really sucked. My hand unconsciously drifted to the Empire State Clay bead I kept on my Camp Half-blood necklace.

Derek's features hardened in determination.

'We have to stop Boyd and my sister, before they hurt anyone else,' he said firmly, 'I'll bury Erica at my house.'

We all nodded soberly and he took off towards the exit. Scott sighed.

'I guess he's right. Erica may be beyond saving but there's still a chance we can prevent Deucalion causing more death,' he announced quietly.

I nodded and gave riptide a swing; the bronze blade glowed dully in the dim light.

'Any idea how to stop them?' Allison asked.

Scott turned to her.

'Actually, I was hoping your dad might be able to tell us. You know, since he's a professional werewolf hunter and all.'

* * *

Crunch! Crunch! Crunch!

The forest floor splintered underfoot. The trees seemed to reach out towards me with their branches bleached in the moonlight, impending my way even as I dodged and ducked. Riptide wavered unsteadily with my uneven gait as its bronze glow lit the vegetation directly in front of me.

Woosh! Woosh!

Two dark, large shadows bounded past me. A tree blocked the path a few metres ahead, it was oddly shaped as if it had been bent over completely sideways to form a semicircle above the ground. Two thick branches jutted outwards from its circumference and the two shadows both leaped towards the tree, each choosing one of the slots provided by the two branches. The larger of the two jumped clear over the trunk whilst the other pushed off higher from the wood and summersaulted forwards in the air.

As I reached the tree I capped riptide and dove to the ground towards the semicircle, tucking myself in a ball. I spun twice before I was clear of the trunk and used the momentum of my roll to push myself back on my feet. I ran for a few more metres before skidding to a halt beside the two shadows that had stopped moving long enough to appear their human selves again.

'Hey,' I breathed out, a little breathless from my miniature marathon.

I'd spent the past twenty minutes running through the forest, trying to find Boyd or Cora with no avail and it seemed that Scott and Derek had attained the same outcome.

'Find anything?' Derek asked.

I shook my head.

'Yeah, Boyd,' Scott replied, 'he tried to kill two innocent _kids_.'

Derek sighed in frustration. He frowned as something caught his eye and he pointed at two sets of tracks.

'We're not the only ones who decided to stick together,' he inferred.

'Is that going to make it easier or harder to catch them?' Scott asked.

'I don't know,' Derek answered distractedly, his eyes were busy scanning the forest, 'where did Allison go?' he asked suddenly and turned back to Scott.

'Huh? Oh, she went to get her dad.'

'What?' Derek snapped back, 'their family are _hunters_ – do you know what he's going to do to Boyd and Cora when he finds them?'

'We need his help, Derek. We've been chasing Boyd and Cora for the past half hour with nothing to show for it – he'll have a better chance at catching them with his skills.'

Derek glared at the beta. He opened his mouth to continue the argument but froze. He turned his head towards the wind and sniffed the air, his eyes widened.

'Isaac's with Cora,' he said briefly before sprinting up-wind.

Scott and I hastened to follow.

'What the heck is Isaac doing out? I thought he was still recovering,' I huffed as we ran.

Thankfully, Scott had refrained from using his superhuman speed so that I could keep up with him.

'I guess he's recovered,' Scott replied, 'Derek probably told him when he went back to his house – Isaac's been living there since his dad died. Long story,' he added when I shot him a questioning look.

GRRR!

Derek had slowed down long enough for us to catch up to him and attack as a pack. Scott quickened his pace and leapt through the air over Isaac who was on the ground recovering from a recent assault. Twisting his body, Scott shot feet first into Cora's body. The female werewolf was shoved backwards off her feet and Scott landed on his back. He reach backwards with his hands and planted his palms against the forest floor as he brought his knees up to his stomach. He retracted his legs forcefully and pushed off with his hands, jolting his body upwards so that he flipped onto his feet in a defensive crouching position.

Fully recovered, Isaac stalked up behind Scott to strengthen the barrier blocking Cora's front. Derek and I circled around and blocked Cora's side. She snarled threateningly at us and Derek roared back. His voice was powerful enough to cause a flicker of doubt on Cora's face. She pivoted on her foot and sprinted into the woods. Derek chased her and Isaac immediately followed.

Scott approached the woman Cora had been trying to shred before Isaac attacked her. She stumbled backwards and he raised his hands in a sign of peace.

'Are you okay?' he asked.

'W-w-what?' she stammered.

'Are you alright?'

She nodded hastily.

'You need to get out of here, Ok? Get out of the woods. Get out of here as fast as you can.'

He glanced in my direction and I caught his silent message. _Time to go_. I nodded minutely and he picked it up. Sparing one last look at the petrified woman, he turned and we sprinted into the woods.

* * *

'Lydia! Lydia? _Lydia_, are you okay?'

Stiles Stilinski slammed the door of his Jeep shut as he ran towards the teenage girl huddled in her green coat beside the local public pool.

'I'm ok,' Lydia replied shakily, 'that, over there – not okay.'

She refused to tear her gaze from the pool entrance but the stench of fresh of blood was enough to give him a clue as to what she was talking about.

'Oh my-,' he exclaimed, reeling back from a bloody corpse seated atop the lifeguard's chair in disgust, 'yeah, alright I'm going to call my dad.'

He started to dig around his pocket for his mobile.

'I already called 911,' Lydia whimpered.

Stile looked up from his phone screen and gave her a disbelieving look.

'You called the police before you called _me!?_'

Lydia finally tore her gaze from the front gate and turned to Stiles, puzzled.

'I'm suppose to call you when I find a dead body?'

'_YEEEEESSSS_!'


	6. Lessons from a Hunter

'Are you _sure_?' Scott frowned in confusion, his mobile on speaker as he held it outwards from him.

Derek stared intently at the lit up phone screen, his arms crossed over his chest. Isaac stood beside him staring into oblivion as he listened. I completed the square – or wonky rhombus – and fidgeted with riptide in its pen form as I listened to the caller.

When we had finally caught up to Derek and Isaac, the Alpha wolf had been breathing fury. Absorbing the power of the full moon, Cora had easily outrun the two of them and disappeared into the dense vegetation.

_Yep. Throat ripped out – blood everywhere. It's like the friggin shining over here! If two little twin girls come out of the woods and start asking me to play with them forever never I'm not going to be surprised_

Stiles agitated voice leaked from Scott's phone. According to him, Lydia had found a dead body – apparently she had a nack for finding dead bodies– and Stiles was freaking out because his dad was about to arrive any minute.

'Can you get a little closer to make sure it was them?' Scott asked.

_Make sure it was them–Scott, who else is going around ripping throats out!?_

'Please, just do it.'

There was an irritated sigh on the other end of the line and then absolute silence for the next minute.

_Yeah, it's them._

[break]

I stared at the shadows draped throughout the forest around us with fascination, my imagination conjuring images of my cousin Nico or Mrs. O'leary materializing from them. I sighed. Already, I missed camp.

Two metres away from where I was perched upon a boulder, Derek groaned.

'Boyd and Cora are getting away,' he muttered.

'Derek, they _killed_ someone – A completely, innocent person,' Scott told him.

'Are you sure he's coming?' Isaac piped up.

'Yeah, Allison just texted five minutes ago,' Scott replied.

BRROOMMM!

A four-wheel drive parked twenty metres from us and a tall, Caucasian male jumped out. He dragged a duffel bag from the shotgun seat and lugged it over to us.

Chris Argent dumped the duffel on the forest floor as way of greeting and we got up from our temporary lounging spots to surround him in a semicircle.

'Tracking them in print?' Chris knelt down beside the duffel.

'Trying to,' Scott nodded.

'Then you've been wasting your time.'

Isaac cocked his head thoughtfully and regarded the hunter's bold comment.

'There's only one creature on earth that can visually track footprints,' Chris rose into a standing position, 'and that's man. And if you're not trained like me then you have no idea that this print it Boyd's,' he pointed at a large scuff mark in the dirt, 'and these-.'

'-are Cora's,' Isaac finished for him.

'Nope, they're yours,' Chris said dismissively.

Isaac stood up from his impromptu leaning post and suddenly became interested in a dead tree a few metres away.

'You trampled Cora's as soon as you walked over here,' Chris added, a hint of smugness on his face.

'I know the three of you are focusing half your energy on resisting your own urges under the full moon but that puts you at a severe disadvantage to Boyd and Cora, who have fully given in – they've got the pedal to the floor while you three are barely hitting the speed limit,' he told the wolves.

He flicked his gaze towards me.

'And unfortunately for you werewolves stick to land so until Boyd and Cora decide to take a dunk, you'll be stuck with me.'

I shrugged, fair enough. He was right anyway, I didn't have a superhuman sense of smell and land wasn't dad's domain.

'So what do we do?' Derek asked, causing Chris to turn his attention back to the werewolves.

'Focus on your sense of smell. Actual wolves are known to track their prey by up to a hundred miles a day by scent; a trained hunter can use scent to track them. If the wind is with them, wolves can track a scent by up to two miles. Which means we can draw them to us or into a trap.'

He pulled a thick, black net from his duffel and tossed it to Scott.

'The full moon does give us one advantage – they'll have a higher heat signature, which makes them easier to spot with infrared.'

He tossed each of us military grade night vision goggles.

'Thanks, but I've got my own,' Derek said and his eyes briefly flashed red.

Chris nodded.

'Just remember, we're not hunting wild animals – underneath those impulses are two intelligent human beings, they'll do they can to rely on their human side. They're suppressed but it's there, reminding them how to mask their scent, how to cover their tracks, how to survive.'

He paused and swept his eyes around the woods.

'We need a better vantage point,' he announced and trudged westwards.

Ten minutes later we broke through the tree line and I saw the edge of a cliff that had been hidden from view by the dense forest.

'When's the last time you saw your sister?' Chris asked Derek as we walked to the edge.

'Not in years – thought she died in the fire.'

Below, the city shone like a thousand constellations. The wind was stronger up here and I felt uncomfortable as I noticed how high up we actually were.

Zeus was gonna kill me.

The gust blew stronger and I realized just how close to the edge of the cliff it had pushed me. Hastily, I retreated away from the edge and stood behind the pack. I wasn't going to take any chances with the lord of the sky.

'You feel like you have a lock on her scent?' Chris was asking Derek.

The Alpha wolf shook his head. Chris turned his head.

'Scott, how confident are you in your skills?

'Honestly, most of the time I'm trying not to think about all the things I _can_ smell.'

I raised my eyebrow and he rolled his eyes in response.

'Alright, the problem is when they breach the woods and hit the residential area. Once they pass the high school they're right in the middle of Beacon Hills,' Chris told us.

'They're not gonna… kill everything they see, are they?' Isaac asked uncertainly.

'No, but there is an important difference to recognize,' he sighed, 'wolves hunt for food and at a certain point they get full – Boyd and Cora, hunting for the pleasure of the kill for some primal apex predator satisfaction that comes from the _ripping_ of warm bodies to bloody shreds. And who knows when that need gets satiated.'

'We can't kill them,' Scott said firmly.

'What if we can't catch them?' Derek asked him.

'Then maybe we just need to contain them,' Chris said slowly, 'there's no one in the school at night, is there?

'You want to trap them inside?' Derek asked.

'Is there somewhere with a strong enough door, no windows or access to the outside?' said Chris.

'What about the boiler room?' I suggested.

'Yeah, it's just one big steel door,' Isaac agreed.

Chris seemed to think over what we had said before coming to a decision.

'You sure the school's empty?' he asked.

'It has to be,' Scott said, 'there can't be anyone there this late, right?'

[break]

SHHK!

A metallic stick the size and thickness of a baton dove into the ground. It had windows of clear plastic at the top and a sharp end to penetrate the soil.

'These are ultrasonic emitters,' Chris announced, 'it's one of the tools we use to corral werewolves, pushing them into a direction we want them to run.'

He pressed a button on the top of the ultrasonic emitter. Immediately, it flashed a blinding blue light.

'Gives off a high pitched frequency that only they can hear,' he finished.

I heard a sharp intake of breath and twisted my head around towards the sound. The three werewolves each had their hands clamped against the sides of their faces or fingers shoved in their ears.

'No kidding,' Isaac gasped.

I felt so happy to be human… at least half. Chris grinned before switching the emitter off.

'Better get used to them,' he grunted as he raised himself from the crouch he had been in, 'your jobs are to stick these around Boyd and Cora – I need you to track them and place the emitters on their side furthest from the school.'

He walked towards his car and pulled the boot open. Inside was enough weaponry for a small battalion. He grabbed a silver suitcase and popped it open to reveal eight impressions filled with seven emitters. I suspected the empty impression was the home of the emitter he had just demonstrated to us.

Chris grabbed two of the emitters in each hand and handed them to Isaac and Scott.

'These are going to drive them to the school?' Derek asked uncertaintly.

'And then it's up to you to get them into the basement,' Chris answered, dumping two emitters in Derek's arms.

He took the last emitter and stuck it in his pockets along with the one he had used earlier.

'You stick with me,' Chris told me, 'we'll meet at the school once you've all used your emitters,' he said to the werewolves.

'Does anyone want to just rethink the plan where we just, uh… kill 'em?' Isaac asked.

Scott gave him a withering look.

'It's going to work,' he insisted.

Derek gave him a disbelieving look.

'It'll work,' Scott repeated.

Chris rolled his eyes and shut the boot.

[break]

Isaac sprinted through the woods, an emitter in each hand. His head twitched to the side and he collapsed on one knee, shoving the emitter in his right hand into the grass. He switched it on and it flashed blue. The beta spared a glance over his shoulder before using his free hand to push off the grass and sprinted into the woods in a different direction he had been heading in.

[break]

The black four-wheel drive sped along a dirt road running through the forest. I squirmed in my seat as I watched Chris maneuver the car whilst staring at a hand held device that gave him a rough estimate as to where Cora and Boyd were. It was a wonder we hadn't crashed yet.

'Get one ready,' Chris muttered.

I grabbed one of the emitters from the dashboard and activated it. I waited until Chris had slammed the brakes before sticking my arm out the window and dropping the emitter. I watched it fall until it had speared the ground before nodding to the driver.

We sped off again at breakneck speed.

[break]

Derek skidded to a stop beside a great oak tree. He gripped the emitter on its blunt end and brought back his arm. It flashed once before he tossed it into the tree trunk.

[break]

Scott sprinted across the roof of a school bus. He reached the front and jumped down onto its bonnet. Then he pivoted right and leapt into the air, executing a summersault before landing on one knee on the ground and slamming his last emitter into the grass.


	7. Odds

_I'm SO SORRY for the late update! Was preoccupied with exams up till now. Sorry!_

* * *

Chris parked the car outside the school entrance and I jumped out. Scott was there to greet us.

'We've got the side entrance open,' he said, 'Derek's already inside and Isaac's guarding the south side,' he added.

Chris nodded.

'Good work,' he said, 'stick to the north side.'

Scott nodded and ran off.

'You can go with either Isaac or Scott,' Chris told me, 'help them force the wolves into the boiler room.'

I nodded and ran off towards the north side.

[break]

The three werewolves sensed Cora and Boyd as the two werewolves invaded the school grounds. Derek turned his back to the interior of the school hallway and faced the open entrance from inside the school.

Around the corner, Isaac stood facing the school. He scanned the area he could see through the gaps in various walkways that led inside the school grounds.

Grrr…

Confusion crossed his face as he wondered why he could hear Boyd's growl behind him. Then he caught a whiff of their scent and his face fell in resignation.

'Oh, _great_,' he muttered sarcastically.

He turned around to find Boyd and Cora in full wolf form, aggressive expressions contorted their features.

Isaac's eyes switched to bright yellow and he bent his knees in a defensive position, ready for their attack.

HOOOOONK!

He squinted and his eyes switched back to hazel as artificial lights flooded the vicinity. The horn of a black four-wheel drive blared once more before braking behind the wolves. Galvanized by the sudden noise and lights, Cora and Boyd fled away from the car towards the side entrance.

[break]

Derek heard them before he saw them. He retracted his claws and got ready to play bait. He tensed as Boyd and Cora blocked the moonlight illuminating the hallway. They stopped short when they spotted Derek and, instead of attacking him, leapt skywards and onto the school roof.

[break]

'They're not going through the school, they're going over it,' Scott breathed.

'Huh?' I asked.

He looked at me, confused but the expression quickly cleared and was replaced with slight embarrassment.

'Oh, sorry, I forgot,' he said sheepishly, 'I can hear them – they're on the roof.'

'You've got to be kidding,' I groaned as we took off to find Chris.

'They're going over the school!' Scott yelled as we rounded the corner and spotted Chris alighting from his vehicle.

He sighed in frustration.

'Come on,' he ran towards the side entrance.

We reached the West side of the building as Derek appeared from the entrance.

'The rear doors, someone has to get them open!' Chris ordered.

Derek immediately took off towards the other side of the building as Isaac arrived from the side he had been posted.

'Someone has to drive them inside,' I reminded Chris.

'I'll go,' the hunter replied.

Chris conjured a cattle prod from out of thin air. It crackled with electricity and I had a quick flashback to the day Thalia and I had fought after 'Capture the flag' – her lightning attack hadn't hurt me but it still packed a punch. Unconsciously, I took half a step back.

'No, I'm faster,' Isaac interrupted and ran off before Chris could protest.

Chris turned to Scott and I.

'Go through there and meet up with Derek,' he waved towards the open doors with his cattle prod, 'the three of you should be enough to get Cora and Boyd into the boiler room.'

We nodded and ran into the darkened hallway.

I felt stronger. Every few metres there was a drinking fountain or a class with taps, I could practically _feel_ the water running through the pipes in the walls and floor.

GRRR!

Scott and I skidded around a corner as Derek threw his sister to the ground. Scott wolfed out and I pulled a wave from the nearest drinking fountain.

I felt a strong tug in my gut as I flung my arm forwards. The water molecules followed my movement and slammed into Boyd who had been planning a rear assault on Derek who was preoccupied with Cora.

'Percy!' Scott yelled, 'get them to follow us!'

I nodded my acknowledgement and Scott tugged Derek's arm to get his attention. Both of them turned and sprinted down the corridor that led to the boiler room. I filled the corridor with water and barred every other entrance. Snarling, Boyd and Cora sized up their opponents and decided that Derek and Scott were more significant prey. They took off after the two wolves and I sent the water back into the pipes before drawing riptide and running after the wolves to bring up the rear.

CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!

I could hear the footsteps of two teenagers and two adults ringing against the metal lined stairs leading down into the boiler room. When I reached the hallway, the door was open but no wolves in sight which meant that Scott and Derek had successful lured them into the boiler room. The only problem was that they had yet to escape the trap and lock Boyd and Cora inside.

BANG!

Scott and Derek scrambled out of the room and slammed the door shut, pulling a metal plank across to bar the door.

'Scott!'

I whipped my head around as I heard Isaac's cry and turned back to the wolves below. Scott and Derek were preoccupied holding the door shut as it thudded from the inside with Boyd and Cora's attempts at freeing themselves.

'I'll go see what he wants,' I told them.

Scott nodded in agreement and I took off. After maneuvering through the maze of hallways I found Isaac staring out the window.

'The sun's coming up,' he breathed, golden rays lighting up his face.

He turned to me and grinned.

'Boyd and Cora are back to normal now, right?' I asked hopefully.

'Only one way to find out,' he replied and we ran back to the boiler room.

We reached the entrance at the top of the stairs in time to see Scott open the door leading to the boiler room and run inside. Sparing me a worried glance, Isaac hastily made his way into the boiler room as fast as he could. As we passed a wall of thick pipes, we were met with a shocking sight.

Derek was on his knees, his shirt in tatters and stained with blood. Boyd and Cora were unconscious on the ground either side of him. The Alpha looked up, exhausted.

'There's a teacher,' he panted, 'I'll take care of her.'

'You okay?' I asked uncertainty.

He bobbed his head wearily.

'Get them out of here,' his voice was hoarse.

I exchanged incredulous looks with Isaac and Scott before the two wolves complied, each of them grabbing a wolf and hauling them off the ground.

[break]

'Hey, didn't take you for a runner.'

Stiles gave me a friendly whack on the back as he jogged up to me. Teenagers milled around the dirt path I was standing on and Coach stood at the front, glaring in disapproval at his lacrosse team members. Unfortunately, he had been put in charge of the cross-country training.

'So, while you guys were making the forest into a pincushion with Chris' toys,_ I_ was at the hospital and found something _very_ interesting,' Stiles announced.

'What, another dead body?' I joked, 'two in a row, nice work. Courtesy of Lydia I presume?'

Stiles rolled his eyes and swung his arms around in wide circles to get the blood flowing. I ducked as an errant limb strayed close to my head.

'Something like that, there were two bodies in the autopsy room – killed _exactly_ the same way as the guy at the pool. All three of them were strangled with rope slash on their necks and bashed in heads. Oh yeah and get this – they were _all_ virgins. Which means that they were probably human sacrifices. '

'That doesn't sound like Deucalion,' I mused.

Stiles shrugged.

'Who knows, the guy's a psycho.'

'Hey, guys?'

Scott walked up to us; he had a worried expression on his face.

'What's up?' I asked.

The beta nodded towards the front of the crowd. Isaac was crouched on the ground in the process of tying his shoelaces. The two twin boys on the lacrosse team stalked up behind Isaac on either side of him and towered over him menacingly. I noticed Isaac's back tense and his head tilted so that he caught sight of who had cast a shadow upon him.

'They're looking for trouble, aren't they?' Stiles grumbled.

'What, the twins?' I asked, confused, 'what harm could they do to Isaac?'

After all, humans pretty much sucked in comparison to a werewolf – no offense to mortals of course.

'Um, remember what Peter said about two werewolves combining to form one Alpha?' Scott asked me.

I turned to him. The look on his face was all I needed.

'You've got to be kidding me,' I groaned, 'why didn't any one tell me? They're in half my classes!'

'It didn't really seem important at the time,' Scott shrugged, 'sorry.'

I rolled my eyes.

WWWWWWTTTT!

The shrill sound of Coach's whistle pierced the air. The effect was instantaneous – teenagers around me started running down the track and we hastily began jogging to avoid being trampled.

'If Isaac tries something he's going to get hurt,' Scott said, he was barely breaking a sweat.

Even as he spoke, the twins took off at a speed considered relatively fast for a werewolf and insanely fast for a human. A feral expression passed over Isaac's face as one of the twins shot a gloating smile at the beta and he rose from his crouch to chase them. Scott swore and doubled his speed, grabbing Isaac's shoulder to stop the werewolf from moving any further.

'Isaac,' he hissed

Isaac's eyes were unseeing, burning with hatred that clouded his judgment.

'It's them,' he spat out before setting off at a dead sprint for the twins.

'Isaac, wait!' Scott yelled and took off after his friend.

He took off after his friend. I shot a questioning look at Stiles.

'It's them what?' I asked.

'He thinks the twins are the ones murdering the virgins'.

I sighed.

'What are the odds of two beta against two alphas?' I asked.

Stiles grimaced.


	8. Sacrifices: food or human?

Thud, thud, thud.

We'd only been running for a few minutes and already the teenagers around me who weren't on the lacrosse team had flushed cheeks and sweat stained shirts.

Some kid a meter ahead of me groaned and began running with an uneven gait.

'Dammit, I knew I should've taken a piss before we left,' he complained.

His friend who was jogging beside him sniggered.

'Go shed your shorts in the bushes then, Dean,' he chortled.

Dean glared at the teenager but his face twitched as his bladder demanded to be satisfied and he hastily hobbled into the line of trees a few metres off path.

His friend laughed his head off. Some Mate.

AAAAHHHHH!

I was one hundred percent sure that a guy had gone into the trees to pee but the scream that stopped us all in our tracks was leaning towards feminine.

We all stood on the track, frozen for a few seconds before making a mad rush towards the tree to see what had scared Jake so much to change his vocal chords.

'Ah, oh…yuck,' Stiles' face screwed up in repulsion.

A definitely dead teenager was strung up against a tree by a dog leash that was tied around his neck. His head and neck was covered in blood.

Stiles gaped and nudged me with his elbow. The teenager pointed at the dead body.

'Yeah, it's a bit hard to miss,' I replied.

Stiles shook his head.

'No, not that, look at this injuries – he was a human sacrifice.'

I narrowed my eyes and scrutinized the corpse to find that Stiles was right. The guy's head was bashed in and his throat was lined with a deep cut.

'Was he a virgin?' Stiles asked almost too eagerly as the teenagers around us gave us odd looks and backed away.

'Gee, Stiles, I can't really tell,' I replied weakly.

I heard footsteps crunching the dead leaves behind me.

'It's him, isn't it?' Stiles turned towards Scott who had just arrived on the scene with Isaac. They were standing behind us and walked closer to the body so that they were part of the border. The twins appeared on the other side of the circle and stared at the body.

'Hey, get outta the way! Get back.'

Sheriff Stilinski barreled through the circle of teenagers closely followed by a female Sargent.

'Get this area cordoned off before they trample every piece of evidence,' he told the woman.

'Back up! Everyone back!' she yelled.

'Get these kids outta here!' the Sherriff ordered.

Stiles walked up towards his dad.

'Dad just come here – look, look,' he grabbed his father by the arm and pulled him towards the corpse, pointing at the teenager's injuries, 'it's the same as the others, see?'

'Yeah,' his dad replied, 'yeah, I see. Do me a favor, go back to school, _now_.'

He turned to Coach Finstock.

'Coach? Give us a hand here.'

'You heard the man, nothing to see here!' Coach announced, 'probably just some… homeless kid.'

'Coach,' Scott approached him apprehensively.

'Yeah?'

'He was a senior.'

Coach sighed and his hand went up to cover his mouth as he scrutinized the corpse. After a few seconds, he seemed to have failed to identify the teenager and turned to Scott.

'He wasn't on the team, was he?' he asked anxiously.

AAAHHH!

A blonde haired girl ran screaming onto the scene. She had a grief stricken expression on her face as she spotted her boyfriend strung up on the tree trunk.

'No!' she screamed.

Scott winced in sympathy.

'Come one,' he told us and we followed him as he trudged down the small rise.

'You see the way the twins looked at him?' Isaac asked. He was staring intently at the two Alphas.

'Yeah, you mean like they had no idea what happened?' Stiles replied dismissively.

'Nah, nah… they knew,' Isaac said darkly.

'The kid was strangled with a garrote, alright? Am I the only one recognizing the lack of werewolfitude in these murders?' Stiles exclaimed.

'Oh you think it's a coincidence? They turn up and then people start dying?

'Well, no but I still don't think it's them.'

Scott stopped walking and Stiles and Isaac both stared at him as if the answer would pop out of his head.

'Scott?' Isaac asked expectantly.

Scott looked at him with a questioning expression. Beside him, Stiles crossed his arms.

'What about you?' Isaac asked him.

'Ah, I don't know yet,' Scott decided, 'why don't you ask Percy instead?'

I raised my hands up in a surrendering gesture as both teenagers turned to me.

'Hey, don't look at me – human sacrifices aren't my department. Food, maybe but definitely not human beings.'

Isaac and Stiles turned back to Scott.

'You don't know yet?' Stiles urged.

'Well he… he's got a point,' Scott inclined his head towards Isaac.

Stiles uncrossed his arms and stared opened mouth at his best friend.

'Seriously dude, human sacrifices?' Scott hissed.

'Scott,' Stiles had a scandalized expression on his face, 'your eyes turn into yellow glow sticks, okay? Hair literally grows from your cheeks,' his hands hovered around his cheekbones to emphasize his point, 'and then, well, immediately disappears and if I were to stab you right now you'd just magically heal and your telling me you have a hard time grasping human sacrifices!?'

Scott sighed and turned to Isaac.

'That's a good point to,' he said.

Stiles half raised his arms. _See_?

'I don't care,' Isaac said stubbornly, 'they killed that kid, they killed the girl that saved me and I'm gonna kill 'em too.'

He walked away, gaze intent on the twins.

[break]

'He said _what_!?' I exclaimed.

'Yeah, that's Mr. Harrison for you,' Scott mused, 'always one for vivid descriptions… as disgusting as they are… Anyway, Isaac got lunchtime detention cause Mr. Harrison thought it was him.'

'Man, that sucks,' I sympathized.

Scott and I were walking down the school hallway as he recounted the brief squabble he and Isaac had, had with the twins after training. One of them had beat his brother up and made it look like Isaac had done it. Scott frowned and slowed his pace until he came to a stop.

'Do you hear that?' he asked me slowly.

I rolled my eyes, unimpressed.

'Dude, seriously, if that's some superhuman hearing joke it's not very funny.'

'No, seriously,' Scott insisted, 'can you hear that?'

I shook my head then realized that he was still staring down the hallway.

'No,' I verbalized my answer, 'why? What can you hear?'

'Isaac… and Allison,' he replied quietly.

Then his face cleared and his confused expression was replaced by horror.

'They're in trouble,' he said briefly before taking off in the direction he had been staring.

'What?' I asked, 'Scott? Scott! Wait up!'

Our shoes slapped the hallway floor as we rounded the corner. Scott doubled his speed when he spotted a vending machine barricading the janitor's closet. As I got closer, I could hear screaming and canine growling. I frowned – definitely not something you'd normally hear at a high school, I should probably get my hearing checked.

'Scott!' I yelled after him.

'They're in there!'

My eyes widened in realization and I hurried to join him. Yeah, Scott was a werewolf but the vending machine weighed a ton and even he had trouble moving it. We shoved our shoulders against its plastic side and dug our feet into the floor. The Vending machine squeaked in protest as it slid agonizingly slowly across the floor but we soon managed to push it far enough so that it was no longer impeding the door.

Scott pushed the door to the janitors closet open.

Inside, Isaac had Allison pinned against a shelf. Scott immediately darted into the closet and grabbed Isaac's shoulders. I jumped out of the way as he threw the beta out the door and into the corridor where I was standing. Scott reappeared moments later and clamped his hand down around Isaac's neck. The beta struggled and bared his fangs. His eyes were bright yellow.

'ISAAC!' Scott roared, his eyes momentarily flashing yellow.

Instantly, the beta stopped struggling. His eyes returned to their normal colour and his fangs morphed back into human teeth. Allison walked out of the janitor's closet, clutching her arm as Isaac scrambled backwards so that he was sitting with his back against the sidewall. Scott gently took Allison's arm and pulled it away from her chest so that he could examine it. There were two bleeding slashes from where Isaac's claws had gripped her.

'I'm okay, it's fine' Allison reassured Scott.

'I'm so sorry, I-I didn't mean to do that,' Isaac apologized.

'I'm okay,' she repeated.

'I'm so sorry,' he muttered miserably.

'It's not his fault,' Allison told Scott.

'I know,' he replied, 'I guess now we know they want to do more than get you angry,' he told Isaac, 'they want to get someone hurt.'

'So are we going to do something?' Isaac asked.

'Yeah,' Scott said slowly, 'we're going to get them angry – really angry.'

[break]

BRRRINNG!

Isaac glanced worriedly at the school. Class was starting; he needed to hurry if he wanted the plan to work. He turned his gaze back to the motorbike beside him. Allison was crouched beside it, hotwiring it with a paperclip.

'How long is this going to take?' he asked impatiently.

Allison glanced up at him. She reached up and turned on the ignition. The motorcycle grated to life.

'Done,' she announced and stood up.

Isaac flashed her a grin before climbing onto the leather seat.

'Pull back on the left hand, kick down to put in gear,' she reached over and moved his fingers over the lever in front of the handle, 'front brake,' she wrapped his fingers back around the handle his right palm was resting on and twisted his hand backwards, engine growled, 'throttle,' she explained, 'back brake's for stopping – try not to crash.'

'Yeah, been there done that,' Isaac replied easily.

Allison took a few steps back and snapped a quick photo of Isaac on the bike with her mobile.

[break]

'Okay, everyone,' Ms. Blake said wearily, 'I know this is the last class of the day – to be honest, I want to get out of here too.'

Scott nudged me with his elbow and showed me his phone screen. I grinned in response when I saw a brown-haired teenager sitting atop an expensive black motorbike. We walked into class and chose our seats. Scott made a beeline straight for the desk beside the Ethan's.

He turned to the twins and gave them the biggest fake smile I'd ever seen in my life. Then he reached into this bag and pulled out the biggest gear I'd ever seen in my life – like, bigger than the ones in Ares motorbike.

Scott grinned as he spun the gear around, Ethan and Aiden stared open mouthed as they recognized the hunk of metal.

'That look's kind of important,' Scott mused before reaching into his bag for another gear.

'I have no idea what this thing does,' he chortled.

Ethan twisted his head around to look at his twin who was staring at Scott with a disbelieving expression. Two rows away, I grinned. Suddenly, Aiden's head whipped towards the front of the classroom and a look of realization crossed his face. Even without superhuman hearing, I knew that he could probably hear the engine of his motorbike.

A look of rage overcame his face and he stood up from his desk.

'Wait – Aiden, _don't_!' Ethan yelled after his twin as the Alpha sprinted from the room.

Ms. Blake swiveled her head around, mouth agape in surprise and chalk in her hand as she watched the teenager run from the room. Two minutes later, we all heard the growl of Aiden's motorbike engine.

'What, the-,' Ms. Blake muttered as she dropped the piece of chalk on her desk and clip-clopped out of the room.

The whole class was silent for a few seconds before there was a chorus of metal chair legs scraping against the floor. Scott and I stood up and followed the stampede of teenagers out into the corridor.

Isaac stood with his arms crossed and a smug grin on his face. Five metres in front of him, Aiden sat atop his bike fervently checking everything was in working order. Students flooded the hallway as Scott, Allison and I went to stand beside the proud beta.

'Nice work,' I told Allison who smiled in response.

Ms. Blake pushed past the crowd of students and stared open-mouthed at Aiden and his bike.

'You have got to be kidding me,' she exclaimed angrily, 'you realize this is going to result in a suspension?'

Allison cracked up laughing and a wide smile broke out across Scott's face. I gave Isaac a subtle high-five.

Aiden looked at his twin who in turn, whipped his head towards us. Ethan's eyes narrowed when they slid to mine, marking me as part of Scott's pack. If he had ever suspected it before, he wouldn't have any doubt now.


	9. Intransigent

_WWWP_! Back to your seat!

I jerked awake from my slumped position and rubbed my eyes blearily, peering towards the source of the sound that had woken me and spotted a blurry coach glaring at a boy who began tramping back down the aisle.

Coach had managed to stuff the entire Beacon Hill's Cross Country Team – minus the lucky suckers who forged doctor notes – onto a hired bus with the intention to drag us to a meet on the desert highway.

'Stop thinking about it man.'

I yawned loudly and pushed myself into a more comfortable position on the synthetic leather seat, half listening to the conversation growing across the aisle from me between Isaac and Boyd.

'Like you're not thinking about it too?' Boyd accused.

'We'll both stop thinking about it,' Isaac replied stiffly.

Boyd gave Isaac an exasperated look.

'I can't,' he stated as if it were obvious.

I shot the two teenagers a questioning glance – what in hades were they talking about?

'Yeah well, there's nothing you can do about it either,' Isaac said resignedly.

'You sure about that?' Boyd questioned the teenager.

Isaac flicked his eyes towards Boyd's disbelieving face and sighed before returning his gaze to the front of the bus. I rolled my eyes and decided I didn't particularly want to know the topic of their discussion.

* * *

Scott's eyes flicked towards Percy as the teenager sat up startled in his seat. Scott watched his friend's reactions to see what had broken the demigod from his slumber but relaxed as he saw Percy blink dumbly at Coach's favourite whistle. Beside Scott, Stiles stared, bored at the screen of his iPad. The skinny teenager glanced sideways at his friend as Scott leaned his head against the window.

'Yo, Scotty,' *click*click*, 'hey, yo, Scotty – still with me?' he snapped his fingers in front of his friends unseeing gaze.

Scott raised his eyebrow confusedly before his expression cleared and he remembered where he was.

'Yeah, sorry… ah, what's the word?' he rubbed his eyes with the back of his hand.

'Anachronism,' Stiles replied, staring at the screen of his iPad.

'Something that exists out of its normal time,' Scott recited.

'Nice,' Stiles praised and swiped the screen, 'okay, next word… incongruous,' he announced the word similarly to a talk show host.

'Um… can you use it in a sentence?'

Stiles looked up and stared resentfully at the back of Coach's back, 'yes – yes I can. It's completely incongruous that we're sitting on a bus right now on our way to some _stupid_ cross-country meeting – Scott began nodding vigorously in an attempt to stop Stiles from ranting further – after what just happened. Incongruous'.

'Out of place… ridiculous – absurd.'

Stiles gave him the thumbs up, 'perfect. Okay, next word… umm… Darach.'

Scott whipped his head suspiciously towards his friend.

'Darach – it's a noun…' Stiles turned his head to see Scott giving him an accusing stare, 'we _have_ to talk about it sometime okay? And we're going to be stuck in this thing for five hours, so why not?'

Scott simply leaned his head back against the bus window and made no attempt to reply. Stiles shook his head incredulously and turned back to his iPad.

'Next word,' he cleared his throat, 'intransigent.'

'Stubborn, obstinate,' Scott began rattling off, realizing that his friend probably thought he was being intransigent by refusing to discuss his supernatural life.

BANG!

The components of the ancient rental bus momentarily disconnected as its wheel stumbled over a porthole. Scott groaned and crouched inwards, clutching instinctively at his abdomen. His actions did not go unnoticed by his friend.

'Woah buddy, you okay?' Stiles asked, his irritated expression replaced with concern.

Scott's eyes were screwed shut as he fought the pain that was blossoming from his gut and merely grimaced in reply to his friend. Stiles didn't wait for any further explanation.

'I knew it – we shouldn't have come!' he announced, swiping his finger through the air to emphasize his point.

'We had to,' the pain subsided enough for Scott to regain control of his facial expressions and vocal chords, 'there's safety in numbers'.

'Yeah, well there's also _death_ in numbers, okay? It's called a _massacre'_, Stiles gaze fell from his friend's face back to the screen of his iPad, 'bloodbath, carnage, slaughter,' he read off the vocabulary list, 'butchery – wow, that's… mmm…'

He turned to his friend to see if his words had, had any effect but saw that Scott was resting his head against the bus window.

'Okay Scott, I'm telling coach ab-'.

'-no, no, no, no – I'm alright'.

'Well you don't _look_ alright,' Stiles argued, 'just let me see it'.

'No, I'm okay,' Scott protested.

'Just let me see it. Okay?'

Scott searched his friends face but only saw genuine concern.

'Okay,' he sighed resignedly.

Grimacing, Scott pulled his shirt up and exposed three deep claw marks, blood smeared across his stomach.

'Aw, dude,' Stiles murmured.

'I know, it's bad,' Scott winced, pulling his shirt back down, 'but it's because they're from an Alpha – it'll take longer to heal'.

Stiles glanced at the front of the bus and then back at his friend in disbelief, 'how come Boyd and Isaac are fine?' he questioned.

Scott didn't reply, or maybe he wasn't listening. Instead, he leaned his head against the window again and stared out over the dry terrain. To no one in particular, he murmured wearily to himself.

'I can't believe he's dead. I can't believe Derek's dead'.

* * *

_WWWP_!

'Two of you – back to your seats!' Coach's finger pointed threateningly.

I groaned and rubbed my face to wake myself up. Coach was so damn insistent with that cursed whistle. Every time I nodded off I'd just get woken up by its irritatingly shrill sound five minutes later. Unbeknownst to Coach Finstock, I glared daggers at the side of his face. Coach was oblivious to my annoyance, choosing instead to glue his eyes to the two perpetrators he had caught sans the leather bus seats attached to their bums. Only when the two boys had returned to their seats did he turn around to return to his position at the front of the bus. I frowned as he did a double take, something catching his eye.

'Jarred,' the middle aged school teacher groaned, 'again – carsick'.

Jarred's sickly moan was interrupted by Coach's incredulous voice.

'_Every_ t–how do you even get _on_ the bus?' he interrogated the dark-haired boy a row in front of me.

All he managed to elicit from the sweaty teenager was another moan. Jarred refused to open his mouth to answer with words lest he asphyxiate his fellow classmates unintentionally.

'Look at me,' Coach demanded. Jarred reluctantly turned his eyes to Coach and I could have sworn I saw Jarred's face change from its grey pallor to a nauseating green.

Coach must have noticed it too.

'No don't look at me,' he quickly replied, 'keep your eyes – keep your eyes on the horizon'.

Jarred nodded miserably.

'McCall,' Coach complained, staring at the back of the bus, 'not you too'.

I twisted my head around and spotted Scott leaning his head against the window. The teenager woke when he heard his name and I narrowed my eyes as I noticed a barely hidden grimace on Scott's face as he sat up straighter.

'No, Coach – I'm good,' he called back.

Coach turned back to resume his trip to the front of the bus but I kept my eyes on Scott who had given up all efforts of concealing his discomfort once the teacher had dismissed him from his attention. Stiles turned to his friend, concern in his face and every action as they exchanged a few sentences that fell short of my demigod ears. Too bad I didn't have werewolf hearing.

* * *

Beep! Beep! BEEP!

The sound of car horns polluted the air. The line of traffic behind and in front literally ran as far as I could see.

'Hey, do you know what the hold up is?' I asked the two werewolves across the aisle.

Isaac glanced up from his phone, 'there's a jack-knifed tractor a few miles ahead,' he responded.

I choked, '_miles_?'

'Yeah, we're gonna be stuck here for hours,' Isaac sighed and sunk into his seat.

I barely heard his last remark, I was too busy eyeing Boyd who was sitting closer to the aisle and consequently, closer to me. His eyes had turned bright yellow and he was breathing aggressively.

'Uhh… Isaac,' I murmured slowly.

The teen wolf glanced up indifferently but tensed as soon as he noticed his friend's behavior beside him.

'Boyd?' he asked carefully.

The teenager didn't hear him; he was too busy staring growling at Ethan. I twisted in my seat and motioned urgently to Stiles who nodded and roused Scott from his nap against the bus window.

It was if Scott had shed whatever discomfort he was harboring. His eyes were alert and his actions purposeful as he moved with the fluidness of a wolf towards Boyd. He reached him as Boyd's nails transformed into claws.

'Let. Go,' Boyd growled as he felt Scott's hand latch around his wrist.

'You got a plan?' Scott breathed, Boyd allowed himself the luxury of laying his eyes upon Ethan, envisioning how he would look like with a slashed throat, 'tell me… your brilliant plan… and I'll let go,' Scott refused to break eye contact with Boyd.

'What are you going to do, kill them? Right _here_?' Scott responded to Boyd's bared teeth, 'and then what? What are you going to do after that?'

'I don't care,' Boyd answered, malice dripping off every syllable that left his mouth.

Without warning, he growled and thrashed violently in an attempt to break Scott's grip. Scott and Isaac quickly restrained him, glancing furtively over the shoulders to see if anyone had noticed the abnormality in Boyd's behavior.

'I do,' Scott responded.

'Woah, woah – you still hurt?' Isaac nodded towards Scott's shirt.

I frowned and quickly slid into the seat directly in front of Boyd's. Scott glanced at my movement and I spotted the bloodstain on his shirt that Isaac had motioned to.

'Don't bother, I saw you napping at the back,' I said as Scott opened his mouth to feed me an excuse.

'It's not your fight. It's my problem,' he muttered dismissively.

I glared at him.

'You guys fought the Alpha pack, didn't you!' I retorted.

'I wasn't planning to have a fight in the first place. And no one _else_ was suppose to be there – it was just going to be Deucalion and I,' Scott shot the two betas a withering glare.

I rolled my eyes, 'fine. But Isaac still has a point'.

'I'm fine,' Scott tried to assure us, 'Just… give me a chance to figure something out – something that doesn't end with someone else dying,' he directed towards Boyd.

The teen wolf nodded, 'okay'.

Scott sighed in relief and made his way back to his seat. I slid along the seat I'd migrated to and leant with my back against the window so that I was more or less facing the two betas.

'So, what happened?'


	10. Da-Da-Bling!

Stiles stood up as Scott approached to give his friend ample room as he returned to his window seat.

'Crisis averted?' he asked, spitting out the adjusting rope of his hoodie he's been nervously chewing on as a supplement for chewing gum whilst Scott and Boyd argued.

Scott nodded.

''Kay, good,' Stiles replied, as he sunk back into his seat ''cause we got another problem; Ethan keeps checking his phone like every five minutes – it's like he's waiting for something,' he waved his hands around to reinforce his hypothesis, 'like a message or signal of some kind… I don't know, something evil though, I can tell – I have a very perceptive eye for evil, you know that,' he turned to point his finger meaningfully at Scott who was dully staring at the back of Ethan's head.

'I don't like him sitting with Danny,' Scott muttered.

'Yeah neither do I,' Stiles agreed.

The two boys sat, staring at Ethan for a few seconds before Stiles shoved his hand in the pocket of his jeans and rummaged around. A few moments later he pulled out his phone.

'Let's see what he's waiting for,' Stiles muttered.

'What're you doing?'

'I'm gonna ask,' Stiles replied, eyes intent on his phone screen.

* * *

_Da-Da-Bling!_

I jerked my head towards the sound of a message-tone, leaving Boyd and Isaac to continue our conversation about random guy stuff. A few seats towards the back of the bus, Danny frowned and pulled out his phone. He read the message he'd received and twisted in his seat to direct his vision to the back of the bus. I frowned and followed his gaze, snorting when I spotted Stiles.

Typical.

The teenager met Danny's eyes and grinned manically, lifting his own mobile and pointing meaningfully at the teenager.

Isaac shifted in his seat to see what had captured my attention and noticed the exchange between Stiles and Danny. He snickered.

'Gay,' was his short conclusion before turning towards the front of the bus again to resume his conversation with Boyd.

Meanwhile, Danny had spotted Stiles. He shook his head and mouthed a silent _no_. Stiles' grin vanished and he raised his hand innocently, _why not_? He swiveled his head to Scott before quickly flicking his gaze back to Danny, a look of determination setting in his face. I watched as Danny shoved his phone back in his pocket and Stiles sighed irritably, fingers flying at lightning speed across his phone screen. His thumb stabbed the screen particularly hard and I heard a familiar message-tone.

_Da-Da-Bling!_

Danny pulled out his phone once more, read what was on the screen and shook his head incredulously as he replied to what I assumed was Stiles' message. A few seconds later, Stiles' eyes flew from the back of Danny's head to his phone screen and his mouth scrunched up in petulance.

_Da-Da-Bling!_

Danny glanced at his phone and twisted around in his seat to shake his head at Stiles. Stiles whipped his hands up in an expression of exasperation and Danny turned back to type a responding message. Beside him, Ethan noticed his friend's unusual behavior and turned to see what he was doing. Danny felt his scrutiny and looked sideways innocently before sending the message he had been texting.

_Da-Da-Bling!_

* * *

Danny shook his head once more as he read Stiles' answering reply and pushed his phone into his pocket, probably permanently from the look of annoyance on his face. Four rows behind him, Stiles frantically shook his head and jerked his hands in desperation. He scrambled in his seat to rest his arms on the seat in front of him, effectively placing the screen of his phone directly in front of his face. His fingers flew furiously.

_Da-Da-Bling!_…_Da-Da-Bling!_

Stiles phone jerked in his hands from the incredible force he was exerting into each finger that assaulted his phone screen.

_Da-Da-Bling!...Da-Da-Bling!_

_Da-Da-Bling!_

_Da-Da-Bling!_

_Da-Da-Bling!_

Stiles sighed impatiently as he jabbed the _send_ button, glancing up to see if Danny was responding to his messages.

_Da-Da-Bling!_

_Da-Da-Bling!_

_Da-Da-Bling!_

Danny let his gaze wander around the bus, keeping an expression of composure and absolute carelessness for the insistent message tone that was emanating from his pocket almost as frequently as Coach's whistle.

_Da-Da-Bling!_

_Da-Da-Bling!_

_Da-Da-Bling!_

Ethan turned his head towards Danny.

_Da-Da-Bling!-Bling!_

Stiles stuck out his tongue as his thumb jabbed the _send_ button as fast as he humanly could.

_Da-Da-Bling! Da-Bling! Da-Bling!_

_Da-Da-Bling! Da-Bling! Da-Bling!_

_Da-Da-Bling!_

_Da-Da-Bling!_

_Da-Da-Bling!_

Coach and half the kids on the bus began turning their heads.

_Da-Da-Bling!_

_Da-Da-Bling! Da-Bling!_

_Da-Da-Bling! Da-Bling!_

_Da-Da-Bling! Da-Bling!_

_Da-Da-Bling! Da-Bling!_

_Da-Da-Bling! Da-Bling!_

_Da-Da-Bling!_

_Da-Da-Bling!_

_Da-Da-Bling! Da-Bling!_

'Something wrong?' Ethan asked over the tirade of message-tones.

_Da-Da-Bling!_

_Da-Da-Bling!_

'Actually,' Danny turned to respond to his friend and miraculously, his phone silenced, 'I was… wondering the same thing about you'.

Stiles craned his neck and half-stood using the back of his seat as leverage, gaping as he watched the byplay between Danny and Ethan. Beside him, Scott was staring intently at the pair as well.

Suddenly, Ethan twisted around in his seat, his eyes making a beeline for Stiles and Scott.

The two boys quickly sunk as low into their seats as possible, scrambling until they were completely hidden behind the bus seat in front of them.

'Well… that wasn't very… subtle,' Stiles whispered.

Ethan whipped his head back to the front, a thoughtful expression on his face.

The two boys slowly slid back up into view. Scott's eyes screwed shut and face in a grimace as the movement agitated his wound. Stiles' mouth pulled down in a curious expression and one eyebrow raised considerably high.

_Ba-Bing_

Stiles raised his hand slightly and glanced down at his phone, reading the message that had appeared on the screen

_Someone close to him is sick, might not make it through the night_

His eyebrow dropped back to its normal position and he showed Scott the message from Danny.

'Ennis,' the beta muttered.

Stiles frowned.

'Okay, so does that mean ah'.

'He's not dead,' Scott confirmed.

Stiles looked up at the back of Ethan's head.

'Not yet'.

* * *

I jolted upright in my seat as my pants vibrated. Instinctively, I reached for riptide and my hand brushed against the phone in my pocket. I relaxed, the source of the vibration identified. I pulled out my mum's phone she'd forced me to borrow for the trip, frowning when I saw Stiles name on the screen.

_Stiles? What are you doing? I told you that if I use a phone it's like a beacon for monsters, remember? You're only supposed to text this number if it's an emergency! Not if you're only sitting like, six rows behind me._

Moments later the phone vibrated again.

_This is an emergency! And for the record I can't verbalize this message in case Ethan uses his superhuman hearing to eavesdrop._

I swiveled my gaze to the back of the bus and glared at the teenager. Stiles rolled his eyes and the mobile buzzed in my hand

_It's legit, I swear! Seriously, Scott's been hurt._

I frowned and prodded the phone screen to respond.

_Yeah, I know and so does Ethan probably – Isaac saw blood on his shirt when he went to the front to stop Boyd and asked about it._

_Did they tell you what happened?_

_Yeah, but they reckon Scott'll be fine by the time we get to the meet.._

_So did I but it looks like he's actually getting worse. _

I chewed by lip and threw a furtive look towards Scott. I'd seen my fair share of injuries and recognized the symptoms on Scott's pale face.

_Have you let Deaton know? He's supposed to be your medic, right?_

_Good idea. I'll keep you posted. _

_Don't text again! Just come up to me and talk next time_

_Yeah, yeah mum. Don't worry there's three badass werewolves here you can call for backup if a monster manages to get its way through all the cars. _

I grinned and put the mobile back in my pocket.

* * *

'Jarred I'm warning you – I'm an empathetic vomiter. You throw up, I'm gonna throw up right back on you and it will be _profoundly disgusting_'.

Coach Bobby Finstock stood over the pale and sweating boy who glanced up fearfully at the frowning man.

'Please don't talk about throwing up… it's not good,' Jarred shook his head and swallowed.

'I might throw up on you just to make a point Jarred,' Coach warned, ignoring the teenagers plea.

'It's not good – not good,' the younger boy squeaked out, shaking his head frantically.

Coach dismissed the blubbering boy and addressed the rest of the bus.

'Now the rest of you – don't think we're gonna miss this meet because of a _slight_ traffic jam,' he jabbed his thumb over his shoulder at the never-ending line of vehicles, 'a minor tornado warning… Jarred,' he added as an afterthought, 'we're gonna make this thing – _nothing_ it going to stop us!' his voice raising in volume and fingers stabbing towards the floor.

His eyes caught movement at the back of an otherwise inattentive bus of teenagers and his face scrunched up in irritation.

'Stilinski – put your hand down,' he complained.

Stiles waved his hand apologetically although his face told a different story.

'You know there's a food exit about a half a mile up. I don't know, if we stop and then maybe-'.

'-we're not gonna stop,' Coach interrupted, shaking his head.

'Okay, but if we _stop_'.

'STILINSKI!' Coach roared before blowing his guts out into his whistle. The nearest kid from coach and his whistle ducked, ramming his fingers in his ears and glaring accusingly at the silver piece of metal.

'SHUT IT!... SERIOUSLY – IT'S A _LITTLE BUS_!' his fists waved dangerously through the air with every word he yelled to the teenager at the back, 'STOP ASKING ME QUESTIONS!'

Stiles shook his head and covered his mouth as he sunk back into his seat, 'I hate him,' he told Scott.

He stared at Coach's retreating back before turning to his friend, 'did you get anything from Deaton?' he asked.

Scott sighed wearily and leant back against the window, 'I keep getting his voicemail, 'he replied in barely a whisper.

Stiles sighed, 'that's it – I'm calling Lydia and Allison,' he announced.

'How're they going to help?' Scott muttered, 'they're back in Beacon Hills'.

'They're not,' Stiles replied, his eyes glued to his phone, 'they've been following us for hours,' he jerked his phone over his shoulder, indicating to the traffic behind them and twisted in his seat to glance at their car, 'pathetic,' he muttered.

* * *

Lydia stared in boredom at the gaudy yellow bus they were following. Honestly, it was a complete eyesore amongst the sea of red, blue and silver cars – like an accessory that didn't match with an otherwise perfect outfit.

BRRRING! BRRRING!

She tilted her head curiously and flipped her phone upwards so that she could see the screen.

_Stiles Stilinski _

BRRRING! BRRRING!

'Ah…' she slowly turned to Allison sitting in the drivers seat and showed her the caller I.D.

Her friend sat up straighter as she answered the phone. Lydia breathed out as she pressed _accept_.

'Hey, _Stiles_,' she began, trying not to sound as if her brain had been frying in Allison's car for the past few hours, 'yeah we're just about to walk into a movie… uh… you know, popcorn and-'.

_-I know you guys are right behind us, put me on speaker_

'You d-okay,' Lydia complied.

She sighed and held the phone between herself and Allison so that they could both listen in on the conversation.

_Okay, look – Scott's still hurt_

Allison frowned, 'what do you mean still? He's not healing?'

_No, he's not healing. I think he's actually getting worse… the bloods turning like a black colour_

'What's wrong with him?' Lydia questioned.

_What's wrong with hi-I don't know do I have a PhD in lycanthropy? How am I supposed to know that?_

Allison closed her eyes and sighed at the teenager's sarcastic tone, 'we need to get him off the bus,' she told him.

'Uh-and take him where? A hospital?' Lydia questioned.

'If he's dying, yeah,' Allison looked her friend in the eye. Lydia pursed her lips and nodded.

'Stiles, there's a rest area about a mile up, tell the Coach to pull over,' Allison directed.

Twenty metres away in a hired school bus, Stiles rubbed his forehead with his hand, feeling an upcoming headache at the mention of the man who – like many other teachers – loathed him.

'Yeah, I've been trying,' he hissed back to the girls through his mobile.

_Well-reason with him_

Stiles dropped his hand and a look of disbelief overcame his face

'_Reason!_? Have you _met_ his guy?' he burst out.

_Just try something_

Stiles huffed and glared at the car in the traffic jam behind him.


	11. Stiles vs coach

'Coach it's _five_ minutes for a bathroom break okay, we've been on this thing for like _three _hours-'.

WPP!

Stiles sighed irritably and struggled to keep himself from snatching the whistle from Coach's grip. Or better still, the lanyard that kept the piece of metal around the man's neck could serve to strangle him, preventing him from ever blowing the friggin thing in the first place.

'It's sixy miles to the next rest stop af-'.

WPP!

'Being cooped up for hours is not good-'.

WPP!

This time, Coach Finstock didn't bother pulling the whistle from his mouth, knowing that he would be using it very soon.

'You know out bladders aren't exactly-'.

WWPP!

'Coach-'

WP!

'Ther-'

WP!

'Can you j-'

WP! WP!

'Please-'

WP! WP! WP!

Stiles eyes widened in exasperation and he stared in disbelief at the Coach.

'Let me _talk_ I-

WPP! Coach Finstock laughed at his student's helplessness.

'Every time I-'

The middle-aged man sucked as much air as he could.

WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW – Stiles's face twitched as he tried to control his emotions – WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWPPPP! 'GET BACK TO YOUR SEAT STILINSKI!'

Stiles finally lost control.

'_OKAY_!' he yelled back in Coach's face. Giving the man one last look of absolute loathing he turned back to return to his seat.

'And Jarred, keep your eyes on the horizon'.

Stiles halted mid-step and half-turned at Coach's order to the sweaty, pale-faced boy staring miserably out the window.

Then, a Stiles-like idea popped into his head.

He quickly slid into the seat beside Jarred, leaning close to the teenager.

'Hey Jarred'.

Jarred turned and noticed Stiles sitting beside him, he grimaced and his mouth drooped further into an extremely worried expression.

'How you doing…'

The teenager took one look at Stiles devious smile and gulped.

[break]

Absolute boredom.

You could hear it in the soft snoring of napping teenagers and the absolute silence that comes from an exhaust of talking topics. You could see it in the lack of activity in the bus and the never-moving line of traffic. I stared open mouthed at the ceiling above me, a fly streaked across the yellow backdrop – a black speck colliding with the windows.

Then, the dull atmosphere broke.

Stiles lurched from the seat he had been seated in, loosing his balance from the momentum and staggering down the aisle and crash landing into me.

'Dude!' I cried indignantly, pushing the scrawny teenager off my lap.

Then the smell hit me.

And suddenly, Stiles unusual – well, a tad more unusual than normal – behavior became apparent to me.

In unison, twenty odd teenagers raised a ruckus in a matter of seconds.

'Gross!'

'Aw, I got some on my shoe'.

'Everyone open the windows! I'm gonna bloody suffocate!'

'_JARRED_!' Coach stood up, the corner of his sports jacket covering his nose and bloody murder written in his eyes.

Stiles scrambled off me and began climbing over the seats towards Scott. As he cleared my line of sight, I got an image to match with the smell. Jarred was standing on his seat, his pants and the floor beneath him stained with vomit. If it were possible, he looked even more miserable.

Suddenly, mercifully, the traffic began moving.

'Go, go, go! Get us to the rest stop!' Coach yelled at our poor driver. The Hispanic man geared it.

I followed Coach's suit and covered my nose with my hoodie.

'Superhuman smell sucks,' Isaac groaned behind me.

I turned to him and raised my eyebrow.

'Ten bucks says Stiles had something to do with this,' I offered.

[break]

I staggered out of the bus, gasping for fresh air only to have the atmosphere around me polluted by air-freshener spray. I looked up, Coach had pried open one of the top windows of the bus and had stuck the top half of his torso outside, his hand waving an aerosol can of _mountain fragrance_ through the air.

'Jarred you _suck_!' he yelled after the teenager's retreating back. Wisely, the other students parted to give him a clear path to the bathroom.

'Hey, somebody grab some towels or a mop… or a new bus,' Coach ordered.

'Percy!' I twisted my head towards my name and spotted Stiles struggling with his friend's weight.

Quickly, I made my way over to them and grabbed Scott's other arm, wrapping it around my shoulder and taking some of the weight off Stiles.

'How's he doing?' I asked.

Stiles shook his head, 'not good'.

'Get him to the bathroom,' Allison and Lydia materialized from the crowd of teenagers.

'Boys of girls?' I asked.

'Boys,' Lydia decided, 'the girl's toilets will be full until we leave, I can't imagine what half a day starved of a mirror would do,' she shuddered.

I raised my eyebrow.

'We're going to a _meet_, why would you need to put on makeup?'

Lydia opened her mouth to respond but Allison interrupted us.

'Guys, focus,' she said.

We shut up and headed for the men's toilets but I halted before we entered.

'Jarred,' I answered Allison's questioning look.

'What?' she asked.

'I… kinda made a kid throw up to get Coach to stop the bus,' Stiles offered.

'Wait here,' Lydia told us before promptly disappearing into the men's bathroom.

A few seconds she returned.

'He's in a cubicle, still retching probably,' Lydia announced, clip-clopping out of the bathroom, 'at least the smell will keep most of the boys out'.

I nodded and we made our way inside, the bathroom was dimly lit but relatively clean. Stiles and I lowered Scott to the floor between two ceramic sinks, he gasped in pain as he made contact with the floor and Allison knelt down in front of him as we backed away to stand beside Lydia. She reached out and lifted his shirt to examine the extent of his injury. I grimaced as I caught sight of the bleeding claw slashes. Allison cursed.

'Why didn't you tell us?' she asked?

'Sorry,' Scott breathed out.

'Ok, just give us a second, okay?' Allison told him reassuredly.

Scott nodded drowsily, letting his eyelids fall as Allison stood and faced us.

'This shouldn't be happening, I've seen him heal from worse than this,' she announced.

'Okay what do we do then?' Stiles asked

'Call and Ambulance?... or Deaton?' I offered.

Stiles shook his head, 'Scott's been trying to contact him since you suggested it. I guess we _could_ take him to the hospital but they might freak at the colour of his blood'.

'Wel-what if it's too late? What if they can't help?' Allison looked upset.

'We gotta do something'.

'It could be psychological,' Lydia murmured.

'What do you mean, like… psychomatic?' Stiles questioned.

Lydia rolled her eyes at him, 'Somatoformicm,' she corrected him.

Stiles looked at her with a blank expression.

'Sm-' he attempted and gave up.

'A physical illness from a psychogenic cause,' Lydia explained.

Stiles stared at her, dumfound before jerking his arm sideways in frustration.

'Yes, it's all in his head,' Lydia replied to his unspoken question.

'Well that's it… because of Derek… he's not letting himself heal because Derek died,' Stiles said, rubbing the back of his neck.

'Derek what!?' I hissed.

'Ah…' Stiles began nervously, 'Isaac and Boyd didn't tell you?'

'Apparently not everything…'

'We're not entirely sure,' Allison quickly out in,' but Scott believes he is and he's going to die because of it if we don't do _something'_.

'Okay, well, then… what do you want us to do?' I asked while Lydia rummaged through her handbag.

'Stich him up,' Lydia shrugged and pulled out a portable sewing kit from her bag.

Allison looked at the needle and breathed out to calm her nerves.

'I'm serious – maybe all he needs to do is believe he's healing,' her strawberry-blonde friend replied.

Allison breathed out another deep breath and her eyes darted to Stiles. Stiles shrugged slightly and looked at me.

'What?' I asked, raising me hands in defence, 'don't look at me; we just use nectar at camp – heals everything from twisted ankles to sword wounds'.

'Well… do you have any?' Stiles asked.

I inclined my head reluctantly, 'I think we should keep that as a last resort – if you give nectar to a mortal it burns them up, like literally… into dust and stuff. Scott might not be human but he's not exactly a demigod either'.

Beside me, Allison sighed but this time she looked more composed, almost resigned.

'I'll do it,' she said.

[break]

Allison ignited her lighter and ran the needle through the flame. Stiles was crouched on the floor, helping Scott out of his bloodied shirt while I gathered reams of hand towels. Lydia stood by the bathroom door – blood, was not her thing, so I'd been told.

'He's gonna need another shirt, where's he's bag?' Allison asked.

'Umm,' Stiles stood up and backed away to the exit, 'I'm gonna get it. I hate needles anyway, so…' Stiles gave us the thumbs up and turned towards the door before pausing and returning, 'ah… do you know what you're doing?' he asked Allison

'Yeah my father taught me'.

'I mean how fast are you gonna b-I mean the bus… like what if the bus could leave?' Stiles reiterated.

''Kay just make sure it doesn't leave,' Allison told him, twisting her neck to face him.

'I can help, come on,' Lydia suddenly pronounced, grabbing Stiles and I by the arm only to drag us out of the bathroom.

'Wait-what?' I exclaimed as we stumbled into the glaring sunlight.

'There's nothing we can do inside and I think I'm going to puke,' Lydia told me, 'I hate blood'.

'Okay… so, do you know how we're going to stall the bus?' I asked.

Lydia seemed to ponder on this for a moment.

'No,' she replied shortly.

I rolled my eyes, 'I wish the Stoll brothers were here,' I muttered.

'Who're they?' Stiles asked.

'Hermes' kids – lords of practical jokes at camp'.

Lydia's eyes narrowed as a plan formulated in her head.

'We don't need the Stoll brothers,' she decided thoughtfully, 'because we've got out our own lord of pranksters right here,' she slapped Stiles on the shoulder.

Stiles groaned, 'no way!' he exclaimed, 'you _know_ how much Coach hates me! Did you see-no, did you _smell_ what I had to do to get Scott _here_!?'

'Exactly, you'll do fine,' Lydia's tone of voice was so obviously, artificially positive.

'What-but-,' Stiles spluttered and I took the opportunity to make a retreat, 'oi! Guys!' Lydia went left, I went right and Stiles stood stuck to the middle.

I felt bad for leaving the guy, I really did. But if anyone could stall Coach, it was Stiles.


	12. Patented Method

Stuck in the middle of a desert highway while Coach bullied the slowest runners into part-time janitors was probably not a typical school trip, but it felt like one of such normality that I smiled despite myself. I couldn't remember having a school excursion this _mortal_ since… ever. Even the monsters in this place were far and few, I'd only had to fight the occasional empousa or giant since I'd moved here – although, the fact that there were two deadly packs of werewolves and the odd supernatural creature living nearby probably deterred them from attacking.

I propped myself up on top of a defiled picnic bench and set the sun soak into my skin. Letting my eyes roam free. Teenagers clustered in groups according to their popularity, one of them kicking around a football some kid had brought with them. I wondered what Annabeth and Thalia would be doing at their school, or Grover at Camp and Tyson in Dad's realm.

'Hey. Percy, right?'

I spun around at the familiar voice and came face to face with Ethan. Automatically, my hand slipped in my pocket for riptide, 'what do you…' I began harshly but spotted Danny standing beside the Alpha.

Of course, _Stynx _it was no secret that the two guys were gay so it wasn't a surprise that they stuck together like glue. I gritted my teeth – I wouldn't be able to speak openly with Danny around and Ethan obviously knew it too. At least it meant that Ethan's hands would be tied too, unless he didn't care what Danny saw. Reluctantly, I loosened my grip on Riptide.

'Yeah, and your Ethan,' I told him.

The Alpha smiled wolfishly and nodded. He walked around the front of the table to face me and Danny followed like a dog, how ironic.

'Hey Danny,' I nodded to him and my friendliness was genuine. Danny deserved better than a cold-blooded murdered.

'Hey Percy,' he replied cheerfully, 'I'm guessing Stiles was the one who got us this break, eh?'

I snorted, 'who else?'

'So, you hang out with him and Scott?' Ethan asked.

I nodded, 'and you normally hang out with your brother,' I stated, 'where is Aiden anyway? He's in the team, right?'

'He's with a friend,' Ethan replied smoothly.

I raised my eyebrow but didn't pry, Ethan didn't have the memory of a goldfish – he might not be able to do anything with Danny around but once Danny was gone he was free of his restraints.

'So what made you change schools?' I asked.

'My family moved recently,' Ethan's eyes locked on mine knowingly and I knew that he meant his pack.

I nodded slowly, 'weird, I would have guessed you were old enough to be out of school,' I mused innocently.

'I get that a lot. What about you?'

'What about me?'

'What made you change schools?'

I shrugged, 'I'm normally at a different school every year,' I smiled slightly as I spotted his eyes flash briefly with frustration as he failed to milk information from me.

'You don't like them?' Danny asked in confusion.

I shook my head, 'I like them. I guess they just don't like me. It's a bloody miracle I'm still here really. Thought I would've been expelled by now… guess the switch of principals helps,' I rambled on thoughtfully.

Danny raised his eyebrow.

'What'd you do to get kicked out of so many schools?' he asked. I didn't detect any intentional offensiveness in his voice; he was probably just shocked that a seemingly decent kid could get expelled so frequently.

'I don't know, they never tell me – you should ask my old principals'.

Ethan stared hard at me, his eyes promising to delve into my mind and find out all my secrets. I stared back at him, my eyes as cold as those that had seen death and destruction. Two could play this game. Ethan blinked and dropped his piercing gaze as my eyes switched back into a naïve teenager.

And that's when Isaac spotted us.

'Hey, Percy!' he called, walking over, 'what's up?' he asked as he reached the bench. His casual tone was overruled by the clear message in his face _How's Scott?_

'Yeah everything it's fine, just talking to Ethan and Danny about school,' I replied.

He seemed to notice Ethan for the first time and completely lost all façade of cheerfulness. Rage clouded his expression and I carefully edged off the table, recognizing an impending danger.

'You,' he growled menacingly at the Alpha, 'you sick, son of a-'

'Woah, woah!' Danny placed a hand on Isaac's shoulder to stop him from approaching Ethan any further, 'calm down, man. What's wrong?'

Ethan was smiling sinisterly at Isaac, provoking him into a course of action. I grasped Isaac's arm.

'Remember what Scott said,' I muttered.

Isaac shook off our bodily restraints, fueled by Ethan's cocky grin.

'Your gonna pay, for what you did,' he snarled and shoved Ethan in the chest.

Still, Ethan kept the smug smile on his face, taunting Isaac.

Isaac yelled in anger and launched a right hook at the werewolf's face. Danny and I grabbed Isaac and tried to haul him away but he threw us off and rammed his fist back into Ethan's face when he saw that his initial attack had done little to wipe the grin off the Alpha's face.

And still, the grin remained, so his fist continued pummeling.

Danny and I clambered to our feet off the dirt ground as the rest of the cross-country team surrounded us. Voices were raised and words screamed but as I got to my feet, I only saw Boyd on the opposite side of the circle, watching Isaac making quick work with Ethan's face with a reveling smile on his face.

'Percy!' I turned as Stiles grabbed my shoulder, Scott leaning on Allison behind him with Lydia in tow, 'what happened?'

'He just went after him – I was talking to Ethan and Danny and he just went mad as soon as he saw his face'.

'What?-who, Boyd?' Scott asked, closer to the circle.

'What were you doing with Ethan?' Stiles asked before I could answer.

'I didn't– _he_ came to _me_,' I exclaimed, 'and it's not Boyd,' I corrected Scott.

The beta was barely listening; he had taken his arm off Allison and walked unsupported towards the fight, eyes widening as he saw who was attacking Ethan.

'Isaac!' Coach ran towards us from the school bus, the student who'd probably notified him in tow.

'Isaac! Isaac!'

Danny grabbed the beta around the waist and attempted to pull him away from his friend but Isaac simply shrugged him off with a yell of anger and sent him stumbling backwards into the crows of teenagers before resuming smashing Ethan's bloodied face.

'_ISAAC_!'

I jerked backwards in surprise as Scott stood in front of his friend and roared at the top of his lungs.

Instantly, Isaac stopped, his fist half-raised and hand slowly loosening its grip on the front of Ethan's shirt as he turned his head bashfully towards Scott. Everyone else – Coach included – stared in silence at the two betas.

Danny rushed to his friend and timidly examined Ethan's face. Isaac met Scott's eyes briefly before dropping his own in shame.

* * *

'Alright lets go through this one more time,' Stiles furrowed his brow as he gathered his thoughts.

I rested my back against the side of the bus and waggled my feet over the edge of the seat that looked into the aisle, my body positioned sideways on the seat. To my right in the seat behind me, Lydia had finished updating us both on the new conclusion she and Deaton had come to.

'So it's the sacrifices, right? Everything has to do with them… and someone who thinks he's like a dark druid of some kind'.

'Or, actually _is_ a dark druid,' Lydia reminded him.

'A Darach,' I imputed, raising my eyebrow incredulously. After all I'd seen since I'd moved schools, it still seemed pretty far-fetched that druids actually existed.

Lydia nodded slowly, 'Deaton seems to think so. You know… some ancient cultures sacrifice people in preparation for battle.

Stiles sighed, 'so we get Alpha werewolves against a dark druid,' he mused.

'What chance does _one_ druid have against a _pack_ of Alpha's?' I asked.

Stiles' eyes narrowed.

'I have a feeling we're gonna find out before this year is over… one way or another,' he said.

* * *

I blinked blearily, the sub-freezing night's air blasting me in the face as I stepped off the school bus along with the rest of its occupants. I stared dejectedly at a twentieth century looking motel, too tired and irritated at being cooped up in a bus for the majority of the day to care.

'Ah… I've seen worse,' Scott said optimistically as he sauntered up beside me.

'_Where_ have you seen worse?' Stiles exclaimed.

WWWP!

'Listen up! The meet with freshdale's tomorrow. This is the closest motel with the most vacancies and least amount of good judgment that comes from accepting… degenerates like yourselves,' he held up a handful of door keys, 'you'll be pairing up – choose wisely'.

I edged closer to Scott, 'I'm gonna shadow travel home. There's no way I'm sticking around after that bus ride,' I murmured.

Scott grunted in agreement, 'man, your so lucky you can do that. See you at school'.

I nodded and slunk off towards the shadows; although not far enough that Coach's voice couldn't reach me.

'And I'll have no sexual perversions perpetrated by you little deviants – got that? Keep your dirty little hands to your dirty little selves!' he yelled after my classmates retreating backs.

* * *

Scott swaggered down the stairs, starving after a whole day of being cooped up on the rental bus. He spotted a black vending machine and beamed, pulling out a few notes.

'Yo,' he greeted Boyd who was staring at the collection of junk – fuel for teenagers – through a glass window.

The African-American teenager seemed oblivious to the presence of his classmate, a blank expression on his face. Instead, he moved his hand mechanically and jutted out a single finger from his hand.

_201_

The buttons squelched from disuse as Boyd prodded in the code to the selection he wanted. Stiles peeked over his shoulder and scanned the rows of candy bars.

'Hey, that was the same thing I was gonna get,' he commented chirpily.

The metal coil around Peanut Butter Crackers slowly unwound itself, urging the plastic wrapped snack outwards. Then, it creaked to a stop, Peanut Butter Crackers halfway to freedom… or doom, whichever way you thought about it.

'Oh,' Stiles jutted his mouth out as he noticed the malfunction, then he smiled, 'hang on, you know what? I got a patented method for this – don't worry'.

_Stiles glared at the _Resses_ bar frozen mid drop from its coil. It became apparent to him that the vending machine was completely stuck and he shook the plastic box with his hands. Still stuck. The scrawny teenager swept a critical eye over the machine, assessing its weight before wrapping his arms around it and planting his cheek firmly against its plastic display widow. With a grunt his muscles tensed… and nothing happened. Huffing, Stiles backed up from the vending machine and contemplated possible solutions. Finally loosing his patience, he strode irritably towards his frozen candy bar and violently shook its entrapper. Unfortunately, the vending machine gathered too much momentum and, arms whirling, Stiles scrambled sideways as it fell noisily to meet the hospital floor. _

Stiles tucked his money in his back pocket and eagerly grabbed the uppermost corner of the junk food ATM. He braced himself as he prepared to-

Boyd's fist shot out and shattered the glass.

Shards ricocheted from the location of puncture; Boyd stared at them with a face devoid of expression. His hands still gripping the corner of the vending machine, Stiles slowly twisted his face around and looked curiously at the beta. One hand lowered itself as he watched Boyd's arm reach forward and yank Peanut Butter Crackers from the machine, coil and all.

Stiles stood up straighter, as he reclaimed his hold from the machine and eyed Boyd who had begun plodding back to his room as if nothing had ever happened. He swiveled his head back to the defiled machine and his face assumed a thoughtful expression. Jerking his head away from the hoard of free candy, he gave the hotel a quick sweep to confirm that it was deserted before slyly stretching a hand though the broken display window and latching onto a bar of Peanut Butter Crackers… and then two chocolate bars.

He made his retreat, speed walking back to his room.


	13. Alpha Pack RSVP

'What the hell, Derek?'

I stormed into the loft, brandishing a greasy supermarket receipt in my hand, ballpoint pen in the other.

Reacting to the sudden outburst, Derek and his two betas who were occupying the makeshift house all turned to greet me, bodies tensed in defensive stances.

'Next time you decide to contact me with a note _demanding_ that I get here, don't you _dare_ try and blackmail me or use a receipt with a friggin disturbing purchase list. How do you think I would've explained that if my mum found it first! How did you even get into my house in the first place?' I wielded the receipt angrily, 'how did you even _find_ where I live? And how in _hades _are you alive?'

'Werewolves heal, get over it,' Derek replied apathetically, 'and you have an incredibly distinct scent – it wasn't so hard to track down your house. And no,' he added as I opened my mouth to reply, 'your parents didn't see me. I'm a _werewolf_ not an idiot'.

'Does _Scott_ even know you're okay? He almost got killed just by feeling guilty over you're supposed death'.

Derek nodded, 'yeah, he found out earlier today'.

I huffed and flicked his impromptu note onto a table close by.

'What was so important you had to contact me?' I shot out stiffly.

Derek stared at me as if I'd uttered the stupidest thing known to mankind. Behind him, Isaac coughed implicitly and jerked his thumb behind him at the paned window that spanned majority of the back wall. Obediently, my eyes rose.

'Oh,' I said shortly and trudged over to the stairs, seating my backside onto the third step, 'I guess the Alpha pack knows you're not dead. Does it mean what I think it means?'

By 'it', I meant the massive Alpha pack symbol that covered half Derek's loft window.

'It's an RSVP,' Isaac confirmed, 'only the Alpha pack _never_ needs an invitation…'

'So what're you planning to do about it?' I asked, 'I'm guessing it has something to do with water or else I'd be at home'.

Derek nodded.

'It was Boyd's idea actually,' he informed, nodding to his beta.

Boyd rose from his seat uncomfortably, 'I thought we could electrocute the Alpha pack by flooding this room. In a pool of electrified water it can take up to 50mA to kill another human – less than the power it takes to turn on a light bulb. If we disable the circuit interrupter in the building's electrical room, the current will keep coming and anyone who steps foot in here will get a pretty shocking surprise,' he explained.

I nodded my head thoughtfully.

'Do you want me to spray the pack with water?' I suggested.

'Nah, if they want to get Derek they'll need to get wet anyway and they probably will if they don't know it's electrocuted,' Isaac replied.

'But the set-up works both ways,' Derek warned, 'we're just as vulnerable to the water as they are'.

I nodded my understanding, 'so I'll keep you dry,' I concluded.

Derek nodded.

'But we wouldn't blame you if you accidentally splashed the pack,' Isaac flashed me a grin.

[break]

'So where were you two today anyway? I didn't see you in class the whole day'.

'Oh, we were both incredibly sick – I had a migraine and Boyd had explosive diarrhea,' Isaac's voice floated from the other side of the room.

Derek's entire loft was flooded in water and the three wolves were perched on small islands of dry boxes that we'd made to help me conserve my energy. I peered through the railing of the stairwell – a perfect vantage point.

'Isn't … the light on that thing suppose to be on?'

I twisted my gaze towards Isaac's voice. He was sitting on his wooden island staring and pointing intently at the metal alarm box Derek had installed on one of the room's supports.

'Yeah…' Derek answered warily.

'What does it mean if it's not?' Isaac asked tentatively.

Derek frowned, deep in thought before his face cleared into an expression of realization, 'someone cut the auxiliary power,' he murmured.

'But what about the main-,' Boyd began.

The lights powered down. We were thrown into complete darkness. I heard a series of grunts as the werewolves scrambled into standing positions on their wooden planks.

I twisted onto my feet and crept closer to the bottom of the stairwell where the water lapped gently against the top of the second step. Easing riptide, I uncapped it and it's blade cast the room in a sepia glow.

Derek glanced up at my glowing blade before staring down at the water. Slowly, he stepped down into the water and walked towards the centre of the room, his feet fighting the viscosity as they shoved through the murky liquid.

'Derek?' Isaac asked cautiously, 'what do we do now?'

Derek's blinked and a red glow was added to my blade's bronze one, 'we fight,' he replied, 'Percy, save your energy incase the power comes back on. You'll need it'.

I nodded and swung riptide experimentally as I waded towards Derek's right flank, Isaac and Boyd taking up positions on Derek's left, 'I've never fought an Alpha Pack before,' I mused, 'this should be fun'.

BANG! BANG! BANG! _BANG_!

The door staggered four times before the deadbolt was finally forced from the door. A moment later the door slid to the side and the first thing I noticed were a pair of manicured claws lining two, bare feet.

'I gotta be honest, Derek. When Ennis died, I thought to myself – I'll just go for it. Find you and kill you. Wherever you stood. And I remembered, how you surround yourself with these teenagers… hiding behind them. And I thought; what's a girl gotta do to get you alone?'

A female Alpha strutted into the loft, regarding Derek as if he were prey. Behind her, the twins from school walked into view of the entrance, dragging a captive along with them. Ms. Blake whimpered as much as the claw on her throat would allow.

'You and me Derek, or they tear her apart. What do you say? You think you can beat me one on one?'

Derek jerked his head backwards and we reluctantly backed off, although I left riptide uncapped and the betas kept their claws.

'I'm gonna rip your throat out – with my teeth', Derek snarled at the female Alpha.

The female roared, her mouth stretched wide to reveal her set of canine fangs. Derek responded in similar fashion, before leaping up almost as high as the ceiling and then falling towards the Alpha with his arm outstretched to swipe a lethal blow.


End file.
